Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The Taoiseach makes all of that sound as if the State is making a profit on decentralisation. If it is such a financial success, why is he cancelling it? In the statement the Government made on 14 October that it would not go ahead with the remainder of decentralisation, it was stated it was doing it for budgetary reasons. However, when he is asked questions about property costs, acquisition costs, fitting-out costs and so on, he is able to quote all of these figures to us to the effect that the Government is getting more in than is going out. Has there been a net cost to decentralisation and if so, will the Taoiseach tell us that cost? If there has not been a net cost, what is the budgetary consideration on which he based the decision to cancel the remaining phases and to review these in 2011?

The last time this round of questions took place, we discussed the numbers decentralised from Dublin. When the then Minister for Finance, former Deputy McCreevy, announced the decentralisation programme the plan was that 10,000 civil servants would be decentralised from Dublin to other locations. We now know that 2,500 have been decentralised to other locations, but that less than half of these are from Dublin. Of the remaining 3,500, only half of these will be from Dublin also. Can the Taoiseach tell us the total number decentralised from Dublin, as opposed to the 10,000 anticipated under the McCreevy plan?

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