Opposition lobbied McCreevy 200 times for decentralisation

FINANCE MINISTER Charlie McCreevy was lobbied more than 200 times on decentralisation by opposition party TDs before he announced the entire plan.

Despite the overwhelming criticism of the decentralisation plan by the opposition since its announcement last December, Mr McCreevy received official appeals on behalf of more than 50 different locations from TDs, predominantly from Fine Gael and Labour, over the previous four years.

Between Budget 2000 and Budget 2004, when the plan was first mooted and then finally announced, about half of the 214 parliamentary questions submitted to the minister from the opposition focused on locating a Government department in the respective TD’s constituency.

The records of parliamentary debates on decentralisation, compiled by the Office of Public Works and given to the Irish Examiner, show that on one day alone Mr McCreevy fielded 14 separate questions on the relocation plan.

Although he now says the relocation of 10,000 public servants will severely weaken the civil service, former Taoiseach John Bruton asked Mr McCreevy just two years ago if there were any plans to decentralise any department to his home constituency of Meath.

Just over six months before last year’s Budget, a Dáil debate was held on a Fine Gael motion, supported by Labour, the Green Party, Sinn Féin and independents, condemning the Government for its failure to fulfil its plans to decentralise 10,000 civil servants announced in 1999 from Dublin.

On that occasion, Mr McCreevy played down the possible level of interest in the public sector after Fine Gael claimed that 18,000 or 80% of Dublin-based civil servants wanted to transfer to provincial locations.

Few questions focused on the concerns now associated with the plan. Fine Gael’s Richard Bruton queried the impact on public servants in Dublin who do not wish to move.

Last night, Fine Gael and Labour denied there was any contradiction in their TDs originally lobbying for prospective decentralisation locations and their parties’ present reservations about the plan. And while the criticism of the plan has come mostly from Dublin-based TDs, the spokespersons dismissed the suggestion that there is an urban-rural divide within their parties on decentralisation.

Labour environment spokesman Eamon Gilmore said his party was in favour of a sensibly thought-out and properly planned programme of decentralisation.

“The plan announced by Mr McCreevy was a political decision which appeared designed to whip up expectation in various parts of the country in the run-up to the local and European elections,” he said.