Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 230: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will present in tabular form the progress at the end of 2007 in respect of units or agencies under his Department which are due to decentralise showing in respect of each the number of posts to be decentralised, the number who have moved to the new location, the number who have been assigned to the decentralised post but have not moved, the number of staff who have been assigned who are new recruits and the number who have opted to stay in Dublin who have been assigned to other posts within Dublin. [5304/08]

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. 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 staff has already decentralised to interim office premises in Limerick, with 55 officers being in place at the end of December 2007. A further 21 officers have taken up duty in the Irish Aid offices in Dublin. It is expected that the remaining staff of Irish Aid, including these 21, will transfer to Limerick in June 2008, on completion and fit-out of the permanent accommodation.

Of the 76 officers who are already in Limerick or will move in June, five are new recruits to the Civil Service. Nine Dublin-based officers of this Department have transferred to posts in other Government Departments in Dublin. In addition, a number of officers serving in Irish Aid at the time the decentralisation programme was announced have transferred to posts in other areas of the Department. Due to the nature of the Department's work, many of these transfers would have taken place in the normal course of events. The above information is conveyed in tabular format: