Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 391: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the actions taken by him in 2009 and 2010 under the decentralisation programme; the actions intended under this programme in 2011; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41202/10]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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The original Government decision on the decentralisation of my Department was that 600 headquarter posts would move to Portlaoise; some 100 posts in the local offices in Cork city would move to Fermoy; and up to 100 posts in the laboratories in Cork and Limerick would move to Macroom. The Government announced, in 2008, that the moves of my Department's offices to Fermoy and Macroom had been deferred pending a review in 2011. The Fisheries function was transferred to my Department in 2007 and the administrative staff of the fisheries area, comprising some 85 posts, were decentralised to Clonakilty.

My Department's original Decentralisation Implementation Plan allowed for a phased move to Portlaoise, so as to aid continuity of business and maintenance of service delivery to stakeholders. Since the programme began there has been an increase in Portlaoise of some 300 posts bringing the total there to almost 500 posts. The purchase of a site for the Department's offices in Portlaoise was completed in 2007 and the OPW subsequently announced a preferred tender as part of a PPP (including other Government offices in Mullingar and Carlow). In the context of the last budget, the Minister for Finance decided that the PPP would not go ahead but that the Department's building in Portlaoise would proceed 'on a traditional procurement basis' and this is now being considered by the OPW.