Decentralisation: no going back
The re-location of the Department of Agriculture and Food out of its Kildare St, Dublin headquarters is likely to play a central role in the plan, because Agriculture House is the most likely location for the centralised suite of offices, close to the Houses of the Oireachtas, where Ministers with headTuarters outside of Dublin will be provided with a secretariat, so they can conduct business while in Dublin and when the Dáil is in session.
Decentralisation may also be central to a government plan to raise millions of euros by selling or leasing landmark State-owned building, including the Office of Public Works (OPW) headquarters on Stephen's Green in Dublin.
A number of secretaries general in Government Departments the State's top civil servants raised early reservations about the plans to move over 10,000 civil and public servants out of Dublin. And the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, ex-IFA leader Tom Parlon, TD, has made it clear that decentralisation is a huge task requiring minimal disruption of Government business, while sourcing and training decentralised staff, after identifying and acquiring suitable sites for office accommodation. "Monolithic office blocks on the edge of small towns are not the way to proceed. We need to be imaginative and use decentralisation as an opportunity for urban regeneration and revitalisation. The State Offices should be seen as flagship buildings that make a statement and are a source of pride to the local community", he said.
But Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said decentralisation goes ahead, and it will be an ongoing policy, with some locations still to be decided on in the present round, and as a general principle, all newly set up agencies will be directed outside Dublin.
He pointed out that earlier rounds of decentralisation, including when he was Minister for Finance in the early 1990s, and which involved 4,000 jobs, were a great success.
More than 10,000 public service are to move from Dublin to 53 provincial centres throughout 25 counties, in the decentralisation programme announced by Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy.
A complete move from Dublin is planned for eight Government Departments, and for the OPW.
Included are the Department of Agriculture and Food, earmarked to move its entire Dublin staff of 400 to Portlaoise, and the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, taking a staff of 140 from Dublin to Knock Airport.
The entire staffs of Bord Bia and Bord Glas, 75 and 10 respectively, are to move to Enniscorthy, Co Wexford and the transfer of 100 Teagasc employees from Dublin to Carlow brings to 655 the number of agri-food public servants in the decentralisation plan.
However, the figures given by Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy indicated the haste with which decentralisation plans were assembled.
In the case of Bord Bia, there are only about 56 staff in Dublin; the remainder are scattered across Europe and the US in export offices.
And while 70 Teagasc HQ staff are to move to Carlow, Athenry was the destination chosen last year for 30 rural economics researchers.
