John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Question 592: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the amount the process of decentralisation has cost the taxpayer to date excluding the cost of all sites or buildings acquired; and the cost for each individual location. [40148/08]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The original Government decision on the decentralisation of the Department was that some 600 headquarters posts would move to Portlaoise; some 100 posts in the Cork local offices would move to Fermoy; and that some 100 posts in laboratories in Cork and Limerick would move to Macroom. The decision regarding Bord Bia was that it would move to Enniscorthy involving some 80 posts. The Fisheries function joined my Department during 2007, and along with Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM), had been scheduled to move to Clonakilty (some 85 and 95 posts respectively). Following the decentralisation announcement in the budget, the moves to Portlaoise and Clonakilty, including BIM, were approved by Government to proceed. The moves to Fermoy, Macroom and Enniscorthy have been deferred pending a review in 2011.

Since the original decentralisation announcement, my Department made no specific provision for expenditure nor has there been any specific expenditure recorded by the Department in relation to the proposed moves to Fermoy or Macroom. There was also no specific provision for expenditure in relation to Portlaoise or Clonakilty but the Department does send a quarterly return to the Decentralisation Implementation Group, which details the non-property costs such as travel and overtime. To the end of the last quarter, July to September 2008, these costs amounted to €179,091. The programme also requires staff resources from a range of corporate functions (e.g. Personnel, Accommodation Services, IT etc.) but these are considered part of the normal range of duties of these functions and therefore are not recorded separately.