Publicly-quoted agri- services business Donegal Investment Group (DIG) has decided to scrap dividend payments to shareholders “for the foreseeable future”.

ONLY 4% of the 10,000 civil servants earmarked for decentralisation had actually transferred out of Dublin at the beginning of this month, the date by which the entire programme was to be completed.

ONLY 2,000 of 10,600 public servants will have moved to decentralised posts by the end of 2007, the date the Government originally promised the programme would be completed.

More than 2,000 civil servants will have decentralised to 29 towns and cities by the end of next year, Minister for Finance Brian Cowen said today.

ONLY 620 of the 10,300 civil servants due to be decentralised have been assigned to locations outside Dublin, 18 months after the scheme was announced, it emerged yesterday.