Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

It is a voluntary scheme, as the Deputy knows. There is no coercion involved.

First of all, I welcome the Deputy's support for the decentralisation programme. That was not the position of his former finance spokesperson, but they did not agree on everything.

Regarding the situation of the transfer of places, we made the decision last year about deferring relocation in 35 cases - about 5,000 people - so that we could implement what was in hand, namely, the 4,400 being transferred. That is being advanced and more than three quarters of those people have been relocated. That is a significant move. The Western Development Commission looked at the impact this had in the Deputy's own area and came forward with a positive report about the benefits of decentralisation to towns in the west, for example. That is something of which the Deputy would be aware.

Regarding the other issue of costs, the Comptroller and Auditor General has done a report on all of this and I understand the Committee of Public Accounts will be dealing with this matter on 2 December. It is important to point out that the disposal and vacation of properties, etc., in Dublin in order to facilitate the funding of the decentralisation raised to the tune of about €550 million and the properties cost about €338 million for the relocations. Obviously, there are issues of costs to look at, but it is not correct to say that the thing has been unbalanced or that there has not been sufficient money raised to deal with that.

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