Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)

At the most, 3,500 people will be decentralised over a number of years. What was announced last December has gone and no longer exists. To a large extent it never existed in the first place as has now become very clear. This is a severe blow to the towns of Roscrea and Thurles in my area. The Minister of State will be familiar with Roscrea as he lives very close to it. Roscrea has disappeared from the decentralisation map. The Civil Defence project is separate from the decentralisation programme. Having read the speeches of the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Cowen, and the implementation reports, neither Roscrea nor Thurles appear anywhere.

A reference is made to Thurles, stating that the Garda Commissioner and the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform will have a little chat about the town sometime, somewhere, maybe. However, that is not enough as no target is set for Thurles and it is not mentioned in the programme. Like other counties, Tipperary has simply disappeared from the Government's decentralisation plans. Any attempt to suggest otherwise is not true. It is a case of live horse and eat grass, maybe some day. I am quite clear that it simply will not happen under this Administration, which is a real pity.

Like other speakers, I actually believed what the Government announced last December. Many other people also believed this, including the local authorities, which started to plan. Other agencies, chambers of commerce and people in communities throughout the country started to prepare for decentralisation. However, it was never a real plan. How could it be? How could so many people be decentralised in that period of time? As Senator Leyden said, he announced the Roscommon decentralisation shortly before the general election in 1992, which was no coincidence. I remind the Senator that was 12 years ago. However, the much more ambitious programme announced by the then Minister for Finance last year was to happen in a much shorter timeframe. In reality it was never going to happen.

Let us consider the impact of this change. Decentralisation is very good for towns because more people come to live in a town and decision-making also becomes decentralised. However, decentralisation needs to be planned and carried out in a coherent and integrated fashion. It could not have been done in the way the Government announced last December.

As I live in a regional town, Nenagh, I know that apart from the economic benefit for a town and a region, real decentralisation would create real promotion prospects within a county. The decentralisation of an entire Department will allow a person starting at a clerical or other lower-grade level to aspire to be promoted within the region or county. The scattered nature of the decentralisation programme gives rise to a particular problem. For example, in many cases those working for the Revenue Commissioners in Nenagh who get promoted effectively must leave. Many such people have told me that they end up commuting to Dublin for years in the hope that they will be transferred back to Nenagh, Limerick or Port Laoise. More decentralised offices throughout the country would offer more career options without the necessity for dreadful commuting.

I wish to ask the Minister of State a question. He referred to report of the Central Applications Facility, CAF. Why are the Revenue Commissioners not included in the CAF?