Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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Question 142: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food if she will report on the latest progress in her Department's decentralisation plans; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26472/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Significant progress is being made on implementing the Government's decision on the decentralisation of my Department. The decentralisation programme includes the relocation of the Department's headquarters to Portlaoise, transfer of the local office in Cork city to Fermoy and the rationalisation of the Department's five Munster laboratories to Macroom.

Practically all the Department's Dublin based administrative staff members, approximately 65, who have expressed an interest in moving to Portlaoise are either there or are in the process of moving. Transfers into and out of the Department via the central applications facility, CAF, have now begun. My Department has initiated the transfer process for all the civil servants who had chosen Portlaoise as a first preference. Other Departments and offices have initiated transfers for staff from my Department decentralising to other locations.

I announced the site for the location of my Department's new offices in Portlaoise on 23 May 2005. Construction is due to commence in 2006. Temporary accommodation to meet my Department's immediate needs in Portlaoise has been sourced and additional temporary accommodation is being sought to cater for further phases of decentralisation in 2006, 2007 and 2008. At the request of the central decentralisation implementation group my Department is finalising implementation plans for the move of the Department's local office in Cork city to Fermoy and the rationalisation of the Department's five laboratories in the Munster region to a single complex in Macroom.