David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Question 149: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number of staff currently working in the maintenance recovery unit of his Department; the number of these who have chosen to relocate under his planned decentralisation programme; the way in which he intends to fill the posts that will be vacated by staff who opt not to decentralise; the date by which he expects the full decentralisation of the MRU to be completed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9775/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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Under the Government programme of decentralisation, it is proposed that all headquarter sections of the Department will relocate to six provincial locations: Drogheda, Carrick-on-Shannon, Sligo, Donegal town, Buncrana and Carrickmacross.

As part of the Department's decentralisation implementation plan, the maintenance recovery unit, MRU, which comprises some 14 employees and is currently located in Finglas, has been included in those sections of the Department designated to decentralise to Carrick-on-Shannon. None of the employees currently serving in MRU has applied through the central application facility to relocate with the section to Carrick-on-Shannon.

Posts in the MRU will be filled by applicants on the decentralisation central applications facility who have expressed an interest in relocating to Carrick-on-Shannon. Accommodation in Carrick-on-Shannon is being provided in a new building that is currently under construction and is scheduled for completion at the end of 2006. It is anticipated that the relocation of staff and sections of the Department to Carrick-on-Shannon will begin in early 2007 and be completed later that year.