Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Willie O'Dea for sharing time with me. In the 2014 annual report of the Citizens Information Board, the chairperson, Ita Mangan, stated:

Without the close relationship each service has with its local community, we could not deliver on our remit – providing information, advice, advocacy and budgeting services, when and where they are needed. In turn, local services benefit from being part of a nationwide service with a national reputation that provides vital central supports.

One year later, in the 2015 annual report, it seems the entire narrative had changed when it came to the ownership of services. Companies are referred to as instruments of delivery and as means to an end. There is no longer any sense of a unique strength from a network of independent services deeply embedded in local communities.

Deputy Willie O'Dea has outlined clearly why this is a ridiculous idea. We have not done a cost benefit analysis. We have not done an impact analysis with regard to local communities. Frankly, it is part of an unannounced, unwritten but very much in-practice and in-train policy of centralisation that the Minister and his colleagues are trumpeting and practising on an ongoing basis. The removal of the local input and ownership of these organisations is simply ridiculous.

At this point, we are centralising so much. We are bringing so much back to the centre. Economics seems to be driving everything. The cost of everything seems to be driving the focus of Government policy instead of the value to the citizen. This value is ultimately what Government policy should be about.

The centralisation in my region of the Department of Social Protection is an example. Presumably, the reason is to boost the public relations aspect of the work of the Minister. One example relates to 31 positions from the Department of Social Protection in Sligo. This is probably the most successful of the decentralised offices dating back to the 1980s. Some 31 positions in the information section were moved back to Dublin. Last week, we learned that the PAYE section of Revenue, also based in that part of the country, is going to move east to Dundalk. A total of 19 new positions will be created there. We know there is a threat to the regional veterinary laboratories throughout the country. This represents more centralisation as they will be brought to County Kildare in the greater Dublin area. That is good news for these locations, but the moves are not in the interest of balanced regional development. Ulster Bank has done something similar, although I grant that we have no control of that. Moreover, a report is circulating suggesting the Minister will do the same with 200 post offices.

The Minister, his colleagues and the Taoiseach are going around the country in a weekly parade of photo calls and empty announcements. In practice, what they are implementing is the shutting down of the cultural and societal fabric of the nation. The Minister is closing everything down. That is simply unacceptable.

We are all consumed with worry and uncertainty over a hard border with Brexit. I put it to the Minister that the virtual border he has created outside Dublin in respect of rural and regional Ireland is exemplified in the stupidity of what the Minister is doing with MABS.

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