Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail)

No. As one who was out of public life for nine years, I can tell the Minister it is a very good place. When he hears the contributions today he will realise the depth of experience of the Members.

I commend the Minister of State, the Minister, Deputy McCreevy, the Taoiseach and the rest of the Cabinet on their brave decision to implement decentralisation. It is a radical move and one that could not have been taken before the advent of broadband and other initiatives in the area of communications. It would have been impossible to move a major Department to a rural area such as Knock or Roscommon when there was no proper telephone system, but that has all changed. This is a small country and there is no reason for keeping the whole Civil Service in Dublin. Out of approximately 33,000 public servants, just 10,300 are being decentralised. It is important to remember that it is a voluntary system.

In 1992, when I was a Deputy, I persuaded the then Taoiseach, Albert Reynolds, to decentralise the General Register Office to Roscommon. About 50 jobs were provided in Roscommon. The move was completed about ten years later. The office is currently in temporary accommodation; a building is being erected to accommodate it. The process took time. There was tremendous opposition to the move from the former Taoiseach, Garrett FitzGerald. He led a campaign against the idea of moving the office outside Dublin, even though Roscommon is centrally located. The Minister of State was there to witness the first sod being turned for the new building last year and I look forward to seeing him at the official opening in the near future. About 200 public servants will be located in the building. The Government also made a decision to decentralise 230 jobs at the Land Registry Office to Roscommon. Roscommon can now be titled "The Registry Centre of Ireland: Land, property, deaths, births and marriages."

A total of 230 civil servants will come to Roscommon. This will revolutionise the town and create much activity on top of the developments that are taking place at present. Many multinationals are now coming to the area and there is much investment in apartments, houses and schools. The 230 workers will bring their families and the influx of children will mean the secondary schools can maintain their current level of teaching staff. The move is having a major knock-on effect on the town. I commend the work of the Minister of State in this regard. He is moving the project along as quickly as possible. It is difficult to predict when the process will be completed but criticism in this regard is simply an attempt to undermine the Government's decision.

The project will be completed as quickly as possible. I commend Mr. Philip Flynn, who is chairing this, on moving it forward. It is important that decentralisation will proceed on a voluntary basis. It would not be reasonable or fair to uproot families and move them to the country for the sake of it. Future recruitment will relate to the location of a Department, whether it is Roscommon, Galway or elsewhere.

This Bill will be enthusiastically accepted by this House because the current situation regarding recruitment to the public service is recognised. Every public representative would regard the Civil Service Commission as being above reproach. I understand the Chairman of the Civil Service Commission is the Ceann Comhairle of Dáil Éireann. I am open to correction by the Minister on that. Having worked as a Minister in the Departments of Posts and Telegraphs, Transport, Health and Industry and Commerce, I am aware that this country is well served by the quality and integrity of the public service. I served with civil servants in Europe as a Minister. I have seen their negotiation skills. They are the envy of every country in Europe. We have Foreign Affairs officials, our trade board and trade officials and other officials working in America and elsewhere. They are people of integrity who work extremely hard. They work closely with Ministers. They also advise them and work with decisions made by the Cabinet. We have a very loyal, trustworthy, well-qualified and well-educated Civil Service. Nothing in the Bill undermines or detracts from their position because the Civil Service Commission will remain intact.

I am not as happy with the Local Appointments Commission as I am with the Civil Service Commission. Perhaps the Minister of State would elaborate on its method of making appointments. From my experience it seems that when the Local Appointments Commission is recruiting to the higher grades, a manager, former manager or senior council official sits on the recruitment board. I came across a situation where an official was attempting to transfer from a particular county to Roscommon. Each time she applied for a transfer the manager from the county in which she worked was on the recruitment board, and each time she was turned down because the manager did not want to lose her. That must change.

The vocational education committees are wonderful organisations. The membership of VECs includes public representatives. I was once a member of a VEC. However, a qualified teacher must now canvass for appointment to the local VEC. That was the case up to a few months ago. I do not know whether there has been any change in that regard. It is not the Minister's responsibility. However, I regard that as offensive. One should apply and be accepted on one's merits, not on the basis of canvassing a political party. My experience of that type of arrangement is that one good deed is done in Roscommon in exchange for another in Louth or Meath or elsewhere. People get on the telephone to each other to discuss candidates on the basis of knowing the candidate and knowing he or she is from a family that has been involved in politics for years. The members of the recruitment board go into the interview knowing who they are going to appoint, and those who are not in the circle need not apply.

I have raised this matter because there has been a long silence about it. It reminds me of the appointment of rate collectors, a very important job in the 1950s. The appointment was based mainly on how much the candidate could give a councillor. Cheques were passed around and the appointment was made. There was a case in Roscommon where there were two applicants for the job and the chairman of the Fine Gael branch, who happened to be a clergyman, decided that his nephew was to get the job. He chaired the meeting and he put his nephew's name twice into one box so that there was a good chance that the name would be drawn. That was despicable and I am glad it has changed. It is right that the Bill provides for flexibility in appointments relating to the Garda Síochána and other organisations.

The Government is very much in favour of the Bill and I fully support it. Both The Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy McCreevy, are a good team in the Department of Finance. I hope the points I made regarding other appointments will be investigated by the Department with a view to introducing legislation to change the method of making appointments to the VECs.