Council fears decentralisation snub after jobs pledge

PUBLIC representatives in Waterford city are getting anxious about decentralisation plans for the region as the Government has failed to reply to a request from the city council about the civil service move.

Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy announced in the December budget that 200 jobs from the Department of the Environment would be going to Waterford under his decentralisation plan.

But the city council has failed to get a reply from the minister’s office on the jobs move - despite sending the Department of Finance a list of its assets and possible locations for such a project in the region.

Councillor Davy Daniels said members of the city council are getting anxious about the planned move, fearing that Waterford might be snubbed in such a relocation plan.

“We are surprised to learn from the county manager that there has been no response from the department on such an important issue. It’s an issue which the city council must keep pressing.

“In the past we did not get the commitment we had been promised by Government on decentralisation. I feel that we have to ensure that the numbers that have been promised to us will be delivered,” he said in a local radio interview.

A spokesperson for the Department of Finance said that plans and preparations for decentralisation are continuing and that Waterford City Council has no grounds to fear they have been snubbed.

“Preliminary data from the Central Applications Facility has just been issued and shows just how many jobs are being decentralised and who is interested in what. We hope to do another report in September to update the situation.

“The Office of Public Works hopes to have 20 sites acquired by the end of this month and all 50 by the end of the year.

“The people of Waterford have no need to be worried. Everything is progressing,” the spokesman said.

Meanwhile, in Carlow, plans to move more than 400 civil servants to the town are continuing.

The town is leading the way in making plans for such a jobs boom.

A site in the heart of the town has been identified to accommodate 250 civil servant jobs from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and 100 staff from Teagasc and building work is expected to get underway soon.