Just 2% of Ordnance Survey staff ‘interested in Waterford move’

THE Government will never manage to encourage enough Ordinance Survey staff to make a proposed move to Dungarvan in Co Waterford viable, a union boss has warned.

According to IMPACT assistant general secretary Matt Staunton, only 2% of the 250 Ordnance Survey staff have shown an interest in the Waterford move and the transfer is just not viable, no matter what the Government intends, he said.

"It's a shameful waste and it's back to the drawing board for the Government as far as we are concerned," he said.

"We are looking for an independent review of the plan. It is unsustainable and not viable.

"We will never get 250 cartographers to move to Dungarvan.

"The Ordinance Survey service is already decentralised all over the country and to centralise it to somewhere that nobody wants to go will mean that the country and infrastructure will suffer. There just won't be any maps," he warned.

Just last week, OPW Minister Tom Parlon confirmed the Government has purchased the old Waterford Foods site in the town and the transfer of the mapping service is imminent.

"This is very good news for Dungarvan with the recent announcement of the closure of Waterford Crystal there. We have a site, Waterford is going to happen and Ordinance Survey will be there," he said.

Responding to queries about how they were going to get people to move, given the poor interest in the site, Mr Parlon said: "It is now an issue for the minister with responsibility for Ordinance Survey and for the chief executive of that area. Every minister and secretary general will be responsible in such instances," he said.

Fianna Fáil county councillor Kieran O'Ryan said the Government wants decentralisation to press ahead as quickly as possible for the region, as some respite for the 485 jobs which are to be lost at Waterford Crystal 390 of which are in Dungarvan.

"The Government wants decentralisation in Dungarvan as much as anyone else.

"But there are people who do not want it, just because they are anti-Fianna Fáil. They would nearly prefer the Government not to bring it and to fail.

"We should all be working in the interest of the people who have lost their jobs. Many of people had big mortgages.

"But to blame the Government for the job losses is wrong. It had nothing to do with it," he added.