Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 308: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the number of civil servants based in Dublin who have applied for decentralisation, who have been transferred to their decentralising post and are in position in the decentralised location outside of Dublin; and the locations and the number of civil servants transferred from a Dublin post who are at such locations. [30246/07]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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Under the Government's decentralisation programme, the Development Cooperation Directorate of the Department of Foreign Affairs, which is Irish Aid's Headquarters, will decentralise to Limerick. This is scheduled to take place in early 2008 on completion and fit-out of the permanent premises in Henry Street. Good progress has been made and personnel have either been assigned to, or identified for, 103 posts or approximately 83% of the 124 posts scheduled to be decentralised.

An advance party involving 55 staff has already decentralised to interim office premises in Limerick. Forty-nine of these were Dublin-based applicants and the remaining 6 were from provincial locations. The latest figures available indicate that some 184 officers from across the Civil Service have chosen Limerick as their first preference for decentralisation. However, other officers may have chosen Limerick as lower preference i.e. anything from 2nd to 10th preference. It is in the nature of the process that the numbers involved change over time as more applications are received and as assignments are made, or as some of those who applied withdraw or amend their applications.