Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. As a Deputy from the west of Ireland, I understand his concerns about balanced regional development.

As the Deputy will be aware, the decentralisation programme announced in December 2003 involved the relocation of over 10,000 civil and public service jobs to 53 locations in 25 counties. Up to the date of the cancellation of the programme, approximately one third of the target numbers, over 3,400 staff, were decentralised. While the decentralised offices account for less than 10% of serving Civil Service staff, taken together with the pre-existing regional and district offices of Departments the proportion of civil servants working outside Dublin is now just over 50%.

Non-property costs of the order of €30 million were incurred in respect of the decentralisation programme. These included costs incurred by decentralising offices and the OPW's spend on dedicated staffing for the programme. The staff relocation was accomplished on a voluntary basis without payment of removal expenses or incentives. It was also accomplished with minimal disruption to the ongoing business of the Departments concerned due to the graduated approach and risk management strategies adopted.

In November 2011, the Government agreed that the decentralisation programme should be cancelled in the light of the budgetary and staffing outlook. It was also agreed that a review of 22 projects should be carried out. Following completion of that review in January 2012, a total of 43 projects had been cancelled, while 50 were maintained, to be managed in the same way as other regionally based offices and Departments. It was agreed that one project, the Defence Forces in the Curragh, should proceed, on a cost-effective basis, as soon as budgetary resources permit.

There is a need to focus Government expenditure on programmes and projects that will best support economic recovery as well as the ongoing necessity to control public expenditure and pay, and the need to achieve efficiencies. The Deputy will be aware that the general government debt forecast is 76% of gross domestic product. Ireland is subject to the preventive arm of the Stability and Growth Pact, which links public expenditure growth with the medium-term growth rate of the economy. This means we have very limited resources or fiscal space for increased expenditure in the next four-year period. For these reasons, there are no plans at present to introduce a further programme of decentralisation.

The Government is firmly committed to the successful implementation of the PEACE and INTERREG programmes. It is particularly proud of its role in securing EU funding for a fourth PEACE programme. Along with its sister INTERREG programme, it will see investment of more than €500 million in the region over the period between 2014 and 2020. The programmes are important drivers of regional development in a cross-Border context. Through EU-funded co-operation, a range of Departments and agencies, North and South, have engaged in and benefited from a variety of cross-Border and cross-community projects. Support for the two programmes from the European Regional Development Fund is not only an important source of funding but also a key element of the European Union's continuing commitment to the process of peace building and reconciliation in the region over the last quarter of a century. Since 1991, successive INTERREG programmes have collectively contributed €1.13 billion to the economies of Northern Ireland, the Border region of Ireland and, since 2007, western Scotland.

In February of this year, the Government launched Ireland 2040. The plan is a discussion about how to secure sustained, long-term and regionally balanced progress on social, economic and environmental fronts. It is now time to think about the longer-term future of all parts of Ireland and to plan for that future. This is important and it is why it was included in our programme for Government.

With the return of stability there are a number of projections and challenges that are likely to be realised and we need to start planning for them now. This paper is the start of a major consultation process so that we can avoid the planning mistakes of the past. All communities and regions need to have their say. Decentralisation is not a panacea for the problems facing parts of Ireland, including the north west.

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