Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 743: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the progress which has been made regarding the decentralisation of part of his Department to Waterford city; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32483/05]

Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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My Department is co-operating with the Department of Finance, the decentralisation implementation group and the Office of Public Works to ensure the Government's decentralisation programme is implemented efficiently and effectively. A decentralisation implementation team has been established to oversee the arrangements for the transfer of the Department's Dublin-based staff to four locations in the south east.

Implementation plans, setting out the issues to be addressed in implementing the decentralisation programme for this Department, have been submitted to the decentralisation implementation group. Those plans are also published on my Department's website at www.environ.ie.

The most recent information from the central applications facility, CAF, indicates that there are a total of 59 staff available, including staff recruited for Waterford, in respect of the 225 posts to be decentralised to Waterford. My Department will be contacting those staff shortly with a view to agreeing arrangements for their transfer to the Department as soon as possible. My Department will also be contacting the CAF in due course for details of applicants who have applied for Waterford as a second or subsequent preference. The indicative timescale provided for the completion of office accommodation in Waterford is mid-2009, and the Office of Public Works is evaluating site options at present.