Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 345: To ask the Minister for Finance the assessment of the financial implications of decentralisation which have been carried out and in particular, if the financial implications of the cost of training and additional staff during the on the job training period; the cost of new recruitment to meet gaps in suitable applicants for the decentralised location; the cost of additional promotions to fill the positions required; if the cost of delays in redeploying officials who opt not to move with their post and cost of retraining and redeployment have been identified in respect of the proposed moves (details supplied). [32597/05]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 346: To ask the Minister for Finance if the audit committee of his Department or its agencies have reviewed the risk management assessment of the proposed decentralisation proposals (details supplied); if it has approved the assessment or made any recommendations for revising the risk assessment or changing the proposed risk mitigation strategies. [32605/05]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 345 and 346 together.

In accordance with the requirements set out in the June 2005 progress report of the decentralisation implementation group each of the organisations not previously identified as "early mover" organisations, including the organisation to which the Deputy refers, are now in the process of preparing a deeper iteration of their original decentralisation implementation plans. This more detailed plan will include a financial assessment of the transition costs that can be expected to arise during the decentralisation process in respect of knowledge retention and training as well as possible promotion and recruitment. Once completed the plan will be available for examination by that organisation's internal audit committee and will also be assessed by the decentralisation implementation group.

A number of options will be explored by the organisation in question in order to effectively manage these potential transition costs and these may include: drawing on capacity from within the organisation which ordinarily would have been available to do other projects and activities; streamlining the provision of other services to release resources to support decentralisation; use of temporary resources; use of overtime; alteration of timescales in other areas; and use of external resources.