Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 10: To ask the Minister for Finance his estimate of the current and capital expenditure that has been incurred to date in respect of the 50 decentralisation projects that have not been advanced. [38741/08]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

A total of €18.8 million has been spent on acquiring sites in respect of those projects which are being deferred pending a review in 2011. The locations in question are Birr, Cavan, Dungarvan, Edenderry, Thomastown, Thurles and Waterford. In addition, a site has been purchased at Knock, at a cost of €390,000.

Approximately €4 million has been spent to date by the OPW on the costs of renting and fitting out of mainly Civil Service properties in advance party locations where permanent accommodation has been deferred pending a review in 2011. A further €1.194 million has been expended by FÁS in respect of the advance office at Birr, €856,000 was expended by the Health and Safety Authority in respect of its Kilkenny advance office and approximately €305,000 has been expended by Pobal in respect of its premises at Clifden. Staff in such locations will remain in place.

In addition, I am informed by my colleague, the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise Trade and Employment, that in parallel with the decentralisation process, Enterprise Ireland strengthened its regional focus in recent years and now has a major presence in the Shannon region in addition to its nine other regional offices. Certain functions previously carried out by Shannon Development under delegated authority from Enterprise Ireland reverted to that agency on 1 January 2007 and, as part of this process, a number of posts from Shannon Development transferred to Enterprise Ireland. The agency strengthened its regional presence by establishing its new regional development headquarters in Shannon and also houses its county enterprise co-ordination unit there. Six posts were assigned to the new office in Shannon from Dublin to manage this new regional headquarters. At present, there are 66 staff working in the Enterprise Ireland's Shannon office. The annual rent on the regional development headquarters in Shannon is €336,600. The tendered contract sum for the fit out was €1.43 million, including VAT.

The Deputy may wish to know that total income from property disposed of in Dublin between January 2004 and December 2007 was €355.9 million. In addition, property valued at €75 million was transferred to the affordable homes partnership. The OPW has also agreed joint venture redevelopment schemes with a minimum value of approximately €125 million up to the end of 2007.

Further details of non-property costs expended by location have been sought from relevant Departments. I will write to the Deputy separately in this regard shortly.

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Will the Minister agree this is a disgrace and effectively means that €27.5 million of taxpayers' money has gone down the drain on decentralisation projects that have been abandoned or mothballed indefinitely? Will he agree the public in the regions were sold a pup by Government in respect of decentralisation and that the reason it has not happened two years after the deadline for its completion is that there was no proper planning of the process from the outset? Does he not feel some shame in turning up in Cavan where there were to be 244 jobs, or Donegal where there were to be 283, or Waterford where there were to be 431, or Cork where there were to be 840, and explaining that the Government has spent the €27 million, but cannot deliver on those projects because it has been, to put it bluntly, incompetent?

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

My response made it clear that staff in such locations will remain in place. Therefore, in so far as expenditure has been incurred, the staff placed in those locations will remain in place. However, it is correct to say the full extent of the decentralisation has been paused. That is the decision of the Government, because in prioritising capital expenditure ——

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

They are empty buildings with someone rattling around as caretaker.

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

In prioritising capital expenditure this year, the Government faced a choice. It had to make a decision to pause decentralisation now or incur far greater expenditure.

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Why are we in a situation that two years after the deadline for the completion of it, the process had not even started in 50 locations? The Minister at the time rightly said that Ministers would be judged, and should be judged on this and that if they did not deliver on it in three years, they did not deserve to hold office. I rest my case.

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The decentralisation programme has made substantial progress. As the Deputy is well aware and as I announced in the budget, the programme is not dead, but in light of our changed economic circumstances, certain matters had to be prioritised. The Government's latest decision means that 6,000 posts were decentralised outside Dublin. That is an impressive figure in terms of the decentralisation programme.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I would like to challenge the Minister on the figure of 6,000. The bulk of those were people who were already outside of Dublin who wanted to relocate from one place outside of Dublin to another, for example, someone in Sligo hoping to go to Carrick-on-Shannon to be closer to home. Will the Minister agree that is where the majority of the decentralisation moves occurred?

Has the Minister a figure for the total number of civil servants in outposts, who will not be joined by others for decades? They will rattle around in large Government buildings and offices with only the ghost of Charlie McCreevy to comfort them. What does the Minister expect the six civil servants here or the seven civil servants there to do? They could go mad, left alone in a large building in Carrick-on-Shannon, or someplace like that, with nothing to do.

Will the Minister please apologise to taxpayers for the waste by the Government of at least €30 million of taxpayers' hard-earned money? That money could have been used in those towns for hospitals, teachers and all sorts of facilities. Instead, it has gone to developers and landlords to rent offices that a few ghost figures in the Civil Service can rattle around in. Does the Minister intend to visit those people and comfort them occasionally and let them know they are not forgotten and that although they are on their own, somebody somewhere in the bowels of the Department of Finance knows they are still there? After the war, the Japanese soldiers who wandered in the jungles in Sumatra did not know the war was over. We have poor civil servants rattling around buildings on their own, not knowing that decentralisation is over.

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

That sounds like some members of the Labour parliamentary party who have been out of office for so many years. There are 6,000 posts being decentralised. Some 2,500 posts have already moved and an additional 3,500 are in train.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Where were they from? They were not from Dublin.

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

This has been a successful decentralisation programme, which has brought great benefits to towns and cities outside Dublin. The programme should be lauded for that. However, it has been necessary, because of the state of the public finances, to pause the decentralisation programme. That has been done.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick East, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

When does the Minister expect to have the 3,474 posts decentralised? They were supposed to be fully decentralised by December 2006. The term used with regard to several locations is that "an advance party is in place". What is an advance party?

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Are they sent a survival pack or tents?

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I will give the Deputy the precise figures for the outstanding timescale. On the issue of value for money, overall the Office of Public Works has spent approximately €250 million, to end-September 2008, on the property aspects of the programme. The total income from property disposed of in Dublin, to end-December 2007, was €355 million.

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

We heard all that already.

Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick East, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The Minister has not answered the question. When will the posts be decentralised?

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The Deputies do not want to hear the facts when they do not suit them. On the capital side, the State has been a very successful developer in this context.