John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Question 157: To ask the Minister for Finance the specific circumstances under which surplus civil servants unwilling to move to new locations under the decentralisation programme will be subsequently rehired. [4076/07]

Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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Question 167: To ask the Minister for Finance the latest estimate of the number of civil or public servants, who do not wish to relocate, who will be surplus to requirements as a result of their jobs being transferred to other locations under the Government's decentralisation programme; the jobs that will be provided for these personnel; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3898/07]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 157 and 167 together.

From the outset both the Government and I have made it clear that participation in the decentralisation programme is voluntary. Across the public service, recruitment and promotion practices generally are being managed in a way which facilitates the achievement of the Decentralisation Programme in an efficient manner and in that context agreement has been reached with the Civil Service unions representing general service staff that an assignment will not be made to a decentralising post until alternative arrangements have been identified for an existing post holder who does not wish to decentralise with it.

Because of the nature of the programme it is not possible at this stage to estimate the precise number of public servants who do not wish to relocate as individual circumstances are open to change and therefore figures can fluctuate. The picture will become clearer over the coming period as staff are assigned to decentralising organisations.

The primary mechanism for placing Civil Servants who are in posts which are due to decentralise but wish to remain in Dublin is by way of bilateral transfer. As staff who have applied to decentralise continue to be transferred into decentralising organisations, the posts they vacate become available to those wishing to remain in Dublin.

Further arrangements have been initiated for general service grades. The objective of these arrangements is to provide to the Public Appointments Service details of staff who wish to remain in Dublin at each grade level so that a proportion of vacancies arising in Dublin based posts may be filled by those staff. It is intended that the arrangements will continue over the full transition phase of the Programme.

My department is monitoring these arrangements in co-operation with Departments and the relevant unions to ensure that they are operating efficiently and that there is a close alignment between the assignment of staff to decentralising posts and the readiness of Departments to release staff at particular grade levels.

Discussions are ongoing with the unions representing professional & technical staff in the Civil Service on this issue. The position in relation to the State Agencies is of course more complex and further complicated by the absence of any tradition of or agreement on inter-changeability between Public Service organisations and between the Public Service and the Civil Service. Little progress has been made to date in advancing agreement between management and trade unions on the issues involved. It is my strong view that they can only be resolved through dialogue and negotiations and my Department is pursuing directly with ICTU proposals for getting central discussions underway on the full range of industrial relations issues relating to the decentralisation of State agencies.