Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Question 77: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the position regarding the decentralisation programme within her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6969/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Under the Government's decentralisation programme my Department's Dublin headquarters will be transferred to Portlaoise; my Department's laboratories in Cork and Limerick will move to Macroom and my Department's local offices in Cork city and Mallow will move to Fermoy.

Last November, the Decentralisation Implementation Group published its report to the Minister for Finance identifying the organisations to move in the first phase of the decentralisation programme and included the decentralisation of 392 Department of Agriculture and Food staff from Dublin to Portlaoise. A further report from the Decentralisation Implementation Group is expected in spring 2005 to deal with locations not covered in last November's report.

Following the Government's announcement in budget 2004, my Department established a Decentralisation Implementation Committee, chaired by an assistant secretary general, to plan and control the process. Tangible progress has been made on the decentralisation of my Department to Portlaoise already, with some 50 staff having been assigned there in July 2004.

In accordance with recommendations made in the Decentralisation Implementation Group report of November 2004, my Department submitted a revised implementation plan to the Decentralisation Implementation Group on 14 February 2005 which sets out the sequence and proposed timescale in which work areas of my Department will be moved to Portlaoise. It is intended that the work of the area aid section involving over 60 positions will be moved from Dublin to Portlaoise beginning in April 2005. A further 50 staff will be relocated to Portlaoise towards the end of 2005. It is planned to proceed with this phased approach to the decentralisation process during 2006 and 2007. The largest tranche of work-staff will be decentralised in 2008.

As also requested in the Decentralisation Implementation Group report of November 2004, a separate implementation plan in relation to information and communication technology staff will be forwarded by 31 March 2005.

My Department is working closely with the OPW to have a suitable permanent headquarters built in Portlaoise. In the meantime, temporary accommodation is being secured in Portlaoise to cater for staff who will be working there in advance of the building of the permanent headquarters for my Department. My Department is also liaising with the OPW on the acquisition of suitable sites in Fermoy and Macroom.