Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

Following the announcement of the Government's decentralisation programme in the 2004 budget, the Department, which has a staff of 130, excluding the National Archives, was designated an early mover by the decentralisation implementation group. Of the nine principal officers who were in the Department prior to the announcement of the programme of decentralisation, only one applied to transfer to Killarney. That officer subsequently decided against relocating. However, four principal officers from other Departments and offices applied on the Central Applications Facility to decentralise to Killarney and they transferred to the Department on a planned, phased basis. Three of the remaining principal officers posts have been filled through promotion competitions and there are panels in place from which the remaining two posts will ultimately be filled.

Overall, only ten of the existing staff of the Department opted to transfer to Killarney and it was clear that the impact of the implementation of decentralisation could be significant if not managed properly. Against this background the Department set itself a key corporate goal in its 2005-07 statement of strategy to manage the organisational challenge while continuing to deliver quality customer service during the implementation of the decentralisation programme.

To underpin the delivery of this goal a decentralisation implementation plan was prepared and is kept under constant review. The Department's human resource strategy and its partnership structures were revised to take account of the implications of decentralisation. A decentralisation committee, comprised of management and staff, has been established to support and to help address the operational challenges involved. Furthermore, in order to meet the needs of new staff transferring into the Department a comprehensive training plan was put in place, which is regularly reviewed and revised. Procedures manuals have also been prepared in the financial area and in the case of the Department's major capital programmes.

To specifically address the potential loss of corporate memory, the transfer of staff into the Department who applied to relocate to Killarney was planned carefully and carried out on a phased basis using some overlaps in the case of critical areas. At this stage a total of 84 staff are in place, 70 of whom are already based in temporary premises in Fossa. It is expected that the new permanent headquarters for the Department will be ready for occupation in the last quarter of 2008. The intake of the remaining staff is scheduled to take place between now and the first quarter of 2009 when the Department will be fully decentralised.

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