Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The Office of Public Works in St. Stephen's Green has not been vacated yet because some of the staff do not want to leave. A further 180 staff were to go to Kanturk and Claremorris. The moves to both of those locations appear to be stalled. A total of 35 reviews on decentralisation are due to be carried out for next year. Can we take it that the remaining staff are not going anywhere, literally, in the sense that significant amounts of money have been spent on purchasing sites and consultants' reports? Are we leaving public servants living in a land of illusion that decentralisation to those locations will take place? I am supportive of well-managed decentralisation because they have spread benefits throughout the country but this was an almighty botched job. One is leaving thousands of people who have applied to be decentralised in a limbo in that they do not know whether it is ever going to happen. We are now faced with 35 reviews to take place next year. No one has any idea of whether they are going anywhere.

The Government bought sites at exorbitant prices, but there is no money in the kitty to build these things. Is it time to tell people that decentralisation will either not occur or not occur for a long time?

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