Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)
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Question 111: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the position regarding the decentralisation programme within her Department; the number of the 60 posts that were due to be moved to Portlaoise during April 2005 which have moved; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14190/05]

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 shortly 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. In line with that plan, the work of the area aid section, involving over 60 positions, is currently being moved from Dublin to Portlaoise.

My Department is working closely with the OPW regarding the construction of suitable permanent headquarters in Portlaoise. In the meantime, temporary accommodation has been secured in Portlaoise and the relocation of staff into that building has commenced. My Department is also liaising with the OPW regarding accommodation in Fermoy and Macroom.