Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy is trying to create a fear factor.

Virtually all reputable economists agree it was necessary for us to take the steps we took to consolidate the gains we have made and to make sure they last into the future. However, when one examines all the decisions made collectively, it is clear there were a number of basic aims. The first was to protect those on social welfare, with a €500 million package. The second was to protect those on lower incomes by putting a greater proportion of the burden on those with higher incomes while at the same time not creating a disincentive for employment and development. The third aim was to continue with the vast majority of the investment outlined in the national development plan, including in schools and our road and rail networks.

There are those who believe all our problems can be solved by reductions in cost of the public service. Indeed, the Government has built in significant savings in the cost of the public service for next year. However, it is insulting and grossly inaccurate for people to infer that most public service workers are either unproductive or underemployed. Having worked with public servants for many years I wish to state that my experience has been that many of them go way beyond the call of duty. Any time I have asked public servants to attend meetings at night, they have done so without question and with no additional remuneration. Of course there are people in the public service who do not deliver but that is true in all situations where thousands are employed. There will always be a few who are not pulling their weight. However, I have met many public servants who go way beyond the call of duty and who more than make up for those who might be less than productive.

The Government is making radical changes and I have announced a number in my own Department. There is no question that all of us can create efficiencies. In the past three years I have set about amalgamating the Leader and partnership companies. It was a slow process and I thank some Opposition Deputies for their enormous support in this regard. The amalgamation was necessary because there was duplication of effort between the two organisations. Likewise, I amalgamated Bord na Gaeilge with Foras na Gaeilge because there was no need for a free-standing board in that case.

I have no doubt that in the coming months, however, as decisions are made by the Government and put into action in the wider public service, despite present calls for even more radical action, we will be inundated with representations from Opposition Deputies to preserve the jobs and conditions of employment of those in the public service. I hope I am wrong and that the Opposition shows consistency in this case and supports the necessary measures we will take to ensure we have the best public service in the world.

There has been a well-orchestrated campaign in the last few weeks to convince people that decentralisation is at an end, with references by the Labour Party to phantom civil servants and so forth. Even last night, certain media headlines were claiming the programme had been abandoned. Like Mark Twain, the rumours of the demise of decentralisation were greatly exaggerated and the facts speak for themselves. To date, 2,500 people have already decentralised and progress will be made immediately with the decentralisation of another 3,500 people, making this by far the most ambitious decentralisation programme ever, with the headquarters of numerous Departments relocating to various parts of the country.

I recognise we have deferred the relocation of the final 4,000 posts for reconsideration in 2011. In the current circumstances, this was a wise decision. However, this should not detract from what has been achieved and the benefits it has brought to many communities around the country. It is interesting to note that one of the happiest campers in the Dáil yesterday evening was an Opposition Deputy who has seen at first hand the benefits of decentralisation, not too far from Deputy Devins's part of the world. He said to me "Fair play — you are providing the jobs", and I am.

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