Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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Question 266: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will provide a progress report on the transfer of his Department offices under the decentralisation programme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31845/08]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The Government decision on the decentralisation of my Department is that some 600 headquarters staff will move to Portlaoise, the local offices in Cork city will move to Fermoy, involving some 100 staff; and the laboratories in Cork and Limerick will move to Macroom, involving up to 100 staff. The move of the Fisheries function of my Department to Clonakilty, involving over 80 staff, is now substantially complete.

My Department's original Decentralisation Implementation Plan allowed for a phased movement to Portlaoise. The 2005, 2006 and 2007 advance phases of decentralisation to Portlaoise were completed on schedule. There has been an increase of some 300 full-time posts to bring the total posts in Portlaoise to almost 500 since the programme began. To date, the Department has met its targets as set out in its original plan. The initial estimate for completion of the plan was 2008, to coincide with the availability of the permanent accommodation. The Office of Public Works (OPW) announced last December that a consortium, the Macquarie Partnership, has won the tender for the project to build the permanent offices in Portlaoise (as part of a public private partnership including offices in Mullingar and Carlow) and planning permission for the new building has now been granted. A revision to the Department's Decentralisation Implementation Plan is now being considered, to reflect the changes to the building timetable and the progress so far, as well as the evolving operating environment. An additional advance phase has been agreed and planning and preparations for this phase are currently underway.

Separate implementation plans for Fermoy and Macroom are in place. The plans allow for a phasing of the recruitment of staff but no physical move until the permanent accommodation is in place. The acquisition of property is primarily a matter for OPW and they have supplied the following details of the site acquisition at the four locations.

The Clonakilty offices are due to be completed in Quarter 1 2009. All of the foregoing, however, need to be considered against the background of the Government decision on 8th July last that no further expenditure on the acquisition of accommodation for decentralisation should be sanctioned pending detailed consideration by the Government of two reports: one from the Decentralisation Implementation Group on the feasibility of phased moves by the State Agencies; and one from the Implementation Group of Secretaries General on the governmental and cross-Departmental issues arising from the need to provide facilities for Minister, Ministers of State and officials while in Dublin on business. It is expected that the Minister for Finance will present these to Government over the coming weeks.