Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

I notice that despite what has been said, the majority of the headquarters — one of the issues in the debate — are in the first phase. The Department of Agriculture and Food headquarters will move to Portlaoise, those of the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism to Killarney, and those of the Department of Defence to Newbridge.

The Minister of State has proved over the past year that the OPW, for which he has responsibility, will be the decentralisation champion. Trim is a wonderful town in many ways and the OPW is lucky to be moving there. The headquarters of the Department of Social and Family Affairs will move to Drogheda and those of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government will move to Wexford. Even some of the more far-flung locations, about which people might feel sceptical, such as Kilrush, Listowel, Clonakilty, Newcastle West and Sligo, are also included. That is a fair cross-section sample of the programme.

The announcement made last week states in paragraph 1(3):

We will report to you again in the spring of 2005 about progress in relation to implementation of the programme. We will also deal in that report with the locations and organisations not covered in this report.

I warmly compliment Mr. Phil Flynn on the work that he and his group have been doing.