Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

It is not a question of drift. There is a proposal to decentralise and in the meantime, people get on with their work in their current location. In fairness to those staff, for the purposes of trying to bring some clarification to what the organisational arrangements will be, it would be best if there was an engagement between staff and management so that they can scope the issue and try to come to some conclusions. The problem is that there has not been a great degree of engagement because of the industrial relations background. Now the OECD report is being used as a means to justify stepping back again but I do not see the benefit of that and I know the staff would like to have the issue clarified, one way or the other. That would be better for everyone, including management and policy makers. I am quite open about that.

I would contend that the Labour Court recommendation on the dispute between FÁS and SIPTU provides a renewed opportunity for both unions and management to address the relevant issues. There are issues to be addressed and I frankly acknowledge that. My Department has been in contact with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to establish how progress can be made on this aspect of the recommendation. I remain confident that through dialogue and negotiation, progress can be achieved. Issues also arise regarding the decentralisation of Civil Service posts which are debated and talked through, solutions are found and the situation is moved on. The problem on the State agency side, unfortunately, is that we are not getting that level of engagement, for reasons which were understandable from an industrial relations point of view. Those issues have now been clarified. I suggest people get down to discussing the problem rather than simply saying there is a problem and not being able to bring it any further. Let us discuss the problem and determine to what extent we can address the issues and bring greater clarification to those employees who want to see the issue resolved.

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