Decentralisation 'essential to ease Dublin'
Decentralisation of Government staff and departments is essential to ease population and traffic pressures in Dublin, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern told the Dáil today.
Mr Ahern said the phased relocation of civil and public servants, announced by former Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy in 2003, would promote more balanced regional development.
Labour leader Pat Rabbitte claimed during Leaders’ Questions that the programme was forcing staff and their families to move down the country and restricting promotion opportunities to those who stayed behind.
He said: “Deputies on all sides of the House now concede that it’s a shambles, it’s unworkable and it is doing permanent damage to the cohesion of governance and causing serious, unjustifiable disruption to families who have put down roots in this city.”
But Mr Ahern replied: “It is a fact that this city can no longer continue to take the densities that are being forced on it, like the population and traffic pressures.
“Without the Government responding to try to move people, we’re having day in and day out, people commuting enormous distances to this city.
“We can far better relocated them to offices in the regions where they can far better provide services to the people.
“As a person who represents the heart of Dublin I don’t see what people have against parts of the country in his House. They’re nice places to live and nice places to work in.
Mr McCreevy promised in December 2003 that 10,300 jobs would be decentralised by 2006 at a cost of €20m.
However, up to the end of March this year, it is believed that only 1,400 appointments have been made to decentralised posts.
Minister of State Tom Parlon is in charge of the scheme.
Mr Rabbitte today asked in the Dáil how a voluntary programme of decentralisation “announced off the top of the head for political reasons has become a compulsory programme of relocation of public servants.”
He claimed there were some State agencies where nobody was offering to relocate like in FAS were only six out of 400 want to move.
He said specialist agencies based in the capital were going to lose skilled and experienced staff.
It will create a parallel civil service that will incur further costs on the taxpayer.
“The 5,000-plus not moving will be white-walled in this city with somebody scrounging around to find something for them to do,” he added.
“It is a disgraceful slight on a service given to his country by so many civil servants.”
