Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 500: To ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform when and the way he plans to proceed with decentralisation in his Department; the way it will be implemented; the resources that will be made available; the extent to which it will be implemented; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18436/07]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I can confirm that my Department's decentralisation programme is firmly on target. It is scheduled to run until 2009, and will involve the relocation of almost nine hundred posts to seven locations.

The Private Security Authority and the Garda Central Vetting Unit are operational in Tipperary Town and Thurles respectively. Further advance moves from Garda HQ are planned for the third quarter of 2007. The Land Registry opened an office in Roscommon town in September 2006 with further phases to follow, and the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner relocated to Portarlington in December 2006. The new headquarters building for the Irish Prison Service has recently been completed and staff will be taking up duty in Longford this month.

Office accommodation will be ready for occupation in Navan in the third quarter of 2007. The targeted number of posts for Navan is one hundred and three. This will be made up of posts from the Garda Civilian HR Unit, National Property Services Regulatory Authority, the Probation Service and the Coroners Agency. Twenty three posts from the Garda Ombudsman Commission and fifty four from the Equality Authority are due to relocate to Roscrea. An advance move of the Equality Authority has already commenced, with five staff having taken up duty in Roscrea in May 2007, and an additional fifteen to follow before the end of the year.

One hundred and eighty six posts from the Irish Naturalisation and Immigration Service (I.N.I.S.) are to relocate to Tipperary and an advance move of up to fifty staff is being considered subject to the availability of suitable accommodation. Work is ongoing in relation to meeting the permanent accommodation and staffing requirements for the Equality Tribunal which is due to decentralise to Portarlington by the end of 2008.

As the Deputy can see, enormous progress has been made in implementing my Department's decentralisation programme and I am confident that all the moves will be completed in 2009.