Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 509: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the number of civil servants and other public servants in his Department who had been decentralised from Dublin to other locations by the original deadline for the completion of the plan of December 2006; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33058/08]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Under the decentralisation programme, all Dublin based operations of my Department are being decentralised, with the exception of Met Éireann, ENFO and a small co-ordination section which it is proposed to retain in Dublin to assist with the Department's Dáil and other business. A total of 682 Dublin-based posts will be transferred to four locations in the south east, as follows: Wexford, 270 posts; Waterford, 225 posts; New Ross, 125 posts; and Kilkenny, 62 posts. The programme also provides for the relocation of the Local Government Computer Services Board, 91 posts; and the National Building Agency, 48 posts; to Drogheda and Wexford respectively.

No civil or public servants from my Department, the Local Government Computer Services Board or the National Building Agency were decentralised by December 2006. However, my Department established an advance office in Wexford in June 2007 which is currently staffed by 44 people. The Department's headquarter offices in Wexford are under construction and expected to be completed by December 2008. My Department will then transfer 270 staff into these offices, commencing in the first quarter of 2009.