Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 164: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the position regarding the decentralisation programme in his Department and its agencies; and the parts of the programme that have now been cancelled. [5248/08]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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Under the Government's decentralisation programme for the civil and public service, some 1,210 posts comprising the Department's headquarter sections and the Social Welfare Appeals Office are relocating to 6 locations — Sligo, Carrick-on-Shannon, Donegal, Buncrana, Carrickmacross and Drogheda. In addition, the Combat Poverty Agency and Citizens Information Board are scheduled to relocate to Monaghan and Drogheda, respectively, under the programme. To date, 177 posts have relocated from the Department's Dublin Offices to Carrick-on-Shannon and Sligo. A further 32 posts will decentralise during 2008 — 27 posts to Carrick-on-Shannon and 5 posts to Sligo.

In addition, the Department has decentralised offices in Longford, Sligo, Letterkenny, Waterford, Dundalk and Roscommon and some 170 employees have transferred to these offices and other offices of the Department, to fill vacancies created by the current decentralisation programme. Furthermore, a total of 206 employees of the Department have transferred to other Government Departments for the purposes of their decentralisation programme. The Office of Public Works (OPW) is charged with securing accommodation for the decentralisation programme. The current indicative timeframe, available to the Department, for the remainder of the programme is as follows:

Buncrana — End 2009

Carrickmacross — 2010

Donegal — 2010

Drogheda HQ — 2011

Drogheda ISD — No indicative timeframe

The Combat Poverty Agency and the Citizen's Information Board are committed to decentralising to Monaghan and Drogheda respectively. At this time, there is no indicative date for the transfer of the Combat Poverty Agency to Monaghan. The indicative timeframe for the relocation of the Citizen's Information Board to Drogheda is 2011. My Department has not cancelled any part of its decentralisation programme.