Fergal Browne (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State. The fact that we are discussing this programme four and half years after the Minister for Finance, Deputy McCreevy, announced it is a ringing indictment of this and the previous Government. We should be reviewing how effectively decentralisation is working but instead we are still talking about it. People are sick to the teeth of hearing the word and want to see action. I am pleased that the Minister of State referred to the process beginning this year. However, I will believe it when I see it.

The Minister made an announcement on decentralisation four and a half years ago when he asked civil servants to indicate if they would be interested in moving. He received an overwhelming reply. Approximately 18,000 indicated that they would be willing to move. Therefore, there is no difficulty with them, it is a question of the Government getting its act together and the process under way. According to information received by Fine Gael, approximately 7,800 civil servants in the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform are willing to move, 4,300 in the Department of Social and Family Affairs, 4,100 in the Department of Agriculture and Food, 427 in the Department of Education and Science, 393 in the Department of Defence, 370 in the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, 314 in the Department of the Environment and Local Government, 243 in the Department of Transport, 197 in the Department of Health and Children, 13 in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and two in the Department of Foreign Affairs, giving a total of 18,324. Almost twice as many civil servants are willing to move as are planned for. Therefore, no one can deny the urgency and need for decentralisation.

I welcome the reference by the Minister of State to Carlow, in particular, as it was snubbed and ignored in the national spatial strategy. Even though my friends in Cavan were included at the last minute, we, in Carlow, were omitted. Perhaps it is a reflection on the good Senators in Cavan. Even though Carlow is the gateway to the south-east, it was not even given hub status, never mind gateway status. I welcome the Minister of State's comments that many of the towns included as gateways and hubs in the national spatial strategy are already significantly developed and would not be economically transformed by decentralisation in the same way as smaller towns. I assume he will look after towns like Carlow that were ignored in the national spatial strategy.