Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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Question 382: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if, in view of the fact that planning permission is being sought for decentralised offices of his Department in Buncrana, County Donegal on an Office of Public Works owned site, he will make a commitment that the Government will deliver the promised 120 decentralised jobs to fill those offices; and the way he proposes to do this, in view of the poor response to date from his Dublin based staff to the offer of relocation to Buncrana. [36130/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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Under the Decentralisation Programme 120 posts in my Department are to be decentralised to Buncrana.

The Public Appointments Service (PAS) established the Central Applications Facility (CAF) through which all applications for decentralising locations must be submitted. According to figures received in my Department from the CAF, the number of first preference applicants for Buncrana is 34.

The agreed protocol for the recruitment of staff for these positions is that first preference priority applicants on CAF will receive an offer for their preferred first location. Where there is a shortfall in numbers, officers who have selected Buncrana as a second or subsequent preference and have applied on the CAF prior to 7 September 2004 will be given the opportunity to change this to their first preference. Applicants who applied after the September 2004 deadline will be considered subsequently. It is therefore not possible to say at this stage how many people will eventually exercise the option to go to Buncrana. The CAF will remain open for new applications until the full decentralisation programme is complete.