Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)

To pick up on the point made by Senator Mansergh, I too welcome a progress report as one of our concerns is how the decentralisation programme is progressing. I totally favour the principle of decentralisation which offers major benefits to towns. The Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Agriculture and Food have located in Nenagh and one can see the clear benefits to the local economy of having a substantial number of public and civil servants located in the town, not only from the point of view of spending power, house buying and so on, but in terms of the confidence it gives to the area and its ability to attract business and infrastructure development. Another positive benefit of decentralisation, in terms of public servants, is the creation of a potential career structure in a regional area. Qualified women who would like to work in the public service, for example the county council, do not have that opportunity because there is no recruitment, but they would be very happy to work in a decentralised Department. If one is promoted for example from the Revenue Commissioners in Nenagh, one is promoted out of the county and one must work in Portlaoise, Limerick or possibly Dublin and a small number find they are commuting to Dublin, possibly on a daily basis.