James Bannon (Fine Gael)

I draw the Government's attention to the adage that self praise is no praise. No one on this side of the House will praise the Government for its inactivity and broken promises since it was re-elected. The public knows what the Government promised and how little has been delivered upon.

While we welcome the concept of decentralisation, there is a real fear it will never happen. The Government's decentralisation programme has all the hallmarks of a pre-election promise. The budget allocated for it is in the region of €20 million which, it appears, will not even move the furniture from Dublin to some of the Departments. This is a cynical promise by Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats to their candidates in the local and European elections because they are disappointed in the Government's performance since it was returned to office. They want some little trumpet to blow when they face the wrath of the electorate on the doorsteps. The electorate is angry. It is waiting in the long grass and on the doorsteps and the Government will get the message because there is no budget in place to implement decentralisation.

It is difficult to see how 10,300 civil servants can be moved out of the city when the Government cannot fix the many schools which are in need of repair or even keep hospitals open. Just last week, more than 200 people were on trolleys in the eastern health board region alone and the same applies to the other seven health board regions. Crime is completely out of control, the Government cannot recruit the extra 2,000 gardaí it promised and there is no evidence of any coming on stream. At the same time, the Government wants us to believe it can decentralise 10,300 civil servants with the stroke of a pen when there is no timetable in place and no budget to implement the move. This is a distraction from the many stealth taxes contained in the budget, along with cuts in child care grants and community employment schemes. I could go on listing the cuts implemented by the Government until the cows come home.

Improvements to the public service arising from the benchmarking process could be undone by the Government's programme for decentralisation and it may also result in shortfalls of expertise in the public service. If the programme is mishandled, it could result in technical and professional staff, who do not want to leave Dublin, being reassigned to inappropriate jobs, leaving skill shortages in key areas such as revenue, agriculture or probation.

In a recent survey of 450 staff at the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, just 124 respondents expressed an interest in relocating to the country. There is a danger of staff surpluses in all Departments as new workers will have to be recruited to fill the vacancies outside Dublin and this could result in a large number of public servants in Dublin with no function and no prospects of career advancement. This is a reality. The Tánaiste hinted in January that the targets for decentralisation could be reduced if staff resistance remained strong. There are worrying signs that, despite assurances to the contrary, decentralisation may not be voluntary and civil servants may be forced to move out of Dublin. Will we have a dictatorship imposed by the Fianna Fáil and Progressive Democrats Government?

The national spatial strategy has been effectively ignored by the Government, as my colleague, Senator Higgins stated, to ensure the decentralisation programme has something in it for everyone. Where there is strong ministerial representation, the decentralisation programme was delivered as a plum. It is clear that the decentralisation locations reflect political favours and it is evident that the Government has abandoned its own spatial strategy.

What has the Government achieved in the following areas, for example, the upgrading of the existing power grid? It was promised that the power grid would be extended to the BMW region, but this has not happened to date. The publication of the water quality report last week showed up the lack of investment in water services, particularly in the BMW region. The Government made promises on waste management and that there would be serious investment in waste management measures, but practically nothing has happened. It was proposed that spurs from the national gas grid would be extended to towns in the BMW region, but that has not been delivered. More resources were promised for e-commerce, but that has not been delivered.

The provision of transport in rural areas is very important, especially for people living in isolation. I understand from those who manage the rural transport initiative that there is a serious shortage of funds. There is no provision for additional funding in this area. All in all the Government has behaved very badly. The national development plan has a strategy for making better use of what is already in existence such as the SHIPP programme in the mid-west and the TITAN programme in the south west. The Government is blowing its own trumpet and——