Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I welcome this opportunity to outline to the house the decision taken by the Government to revise the configuration of VECs, and to set out the factors the Minister will consider in deciding on the location of the headquarters of the new entities. With specific regard to the matter raised by the Deputy, in arriving at a decision on headquarters location the Minister is considering a range of factors. These include the need to ensure that the location of a VEC headquarters will, to the greatest extent possible, facilitate staff redeployment under a redeployment scheme within the context of the Croke Park agreement, and the need to operate at lowest cost having regard to the accommodation available in existing locations. Where redeployment of all of the headquarters staff in an entity to one location is not possible due to a distance factor, or where, for other reasons, such as suitability of buildings, it is not feasible to have all of staff based in one headquarter building, the Minister is giving consideration to the possibility of having sub-offices in some locations, at least for the medium term. Following completion of the Minister's deliberations, the headquarter locations will be announced later this evening.

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