Alan Kelly (Labour)

I refer to the proposed decentralisation to Mallow of Fáilte Ireland. I was once an employee of Fáilte Ireland and I seek clarification for my former colleagues who want to know where they stand in respect of the decision, drawn up on the back of a packet of John Player Blue, to move them to Mallow. Will the Minister proceed with this decision? Staff are in limbo at present and need to know.

Many problems relate to this decision. Not one person has applied to be transferred and there is an issue regarding the transfer of pensions between the Civil Service and State bodies. The organisation is already decentralised through the integration of regional offices and has offices throughout the country. Management is not in favour of the programme of decentralisation as far as I know and has shown no willingness to proceed with it. A number of staff will need to remain in Dublin owing to their need to be close to the airport, especially for publicity events. A Dublin training centre is required and must be maintained. It is likely that, in the near future, a Minister will decide it is crazy to have two tourism agencies, Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland, overlapping and this will render meaningless the decentralisation decision.

If the decentralisation programme is proceeding, why have staff been moved from the Baggot Street office to the Amiens Street office this year if they are going to move again to Mallow? Why are we spending taxpayers' money on the refurbishment of Amiens Street and the maintenance of Baggot Street while this move is proposed? How much is this costing? Why do we need offices in Amiens Street that will hold the staff in Fáilte Ireland's head office, when they will be moving to Mallow? If the move to Mallow is still on the cards, why is so much money being spent?

Has it anything to do with the fact that the chairman of Fáilte Ireland and the chairman of Irish Life, which owns the Baggot Street building, is the same person and that the 60-year lease on the Baggot Street building is a liability on the books of Irish Life? Did this have an impact on the decision?

I am being collegiate because I was a member of the staff of the body that preceded Fáilte Ireland, Bord Fáilte. The staff have been through the mill, with an extraordinary amount of change in recent times. Bord Fáilte created Tourism Ireland in 2001 and merged with CERT to form Fáilte Ireland in 2003. There were further merges with South East Tourism and North West Tourism in 2007. A move within Dublin, bringing staff together before the planned move to Mallow, took place in 2007. Staff do not know if they are coming or going.

The management in Fáilte Ireland does not believe in conversing with the staff and drove the workers to striking for two weeks earlier this year. I was on the picket line. It is unbelievable that Fáilte Ireland staff would strike and they would not need to unless things had become very bad. Fáilte Ireland has been living in Tom Johnson House with the Labour Relations Commission in recent years on numerous matters. It is ridiculous and no way to conduct one's business from the viewpoint of industrial relations.

There is still a lack of information with the regard to the move and I ask the Minister of State to clarify the matter. Management has stated that all future employees will have a stipulation in their contract that they will move to Mallow if employed by Fáilte Ireland. This was tried in the case of FÁS moving to Birr and it did not work. Why is the management doing this? Workers want to know if it will be allowed to proceed.

I have used the forum of Seanad Éireann to generate some information for the workers on their future and to determine whether the move to Mallow is on the cards and, if so, what is the projected timeline. The Fáilte Ireland staff have been through much over the years and deserve to know these answers.