Experts to focus on reluctance

OUTSIDE experts will be hired to hold focus groups to find out why civil servants don't want to leave Dublin.

As speculation mounted all week that the Government's decentralisation plans would be scaled down and the timetable pushed back, the Taoiseach yesterday reiterated the commitment to carrying out bulk of the relocation within three years.

However, the latest report from the group overseeing decentralisation did not contain any details on the time frame for the roll-out of the programme. The second report by the Decentralisation Implementation Group prompted Mr Ahern to again confirm that the plan to move 10,200 public servants to 53 locations the country would go ahead.

Fine Gael and Labour dismissed the report, saying the decentralisation plan, in its present form, was finished.

The implementation group, chaired by Phil Flynn, said there was already evidence of a lot of interest among staff in being decentralised but recommended external consultants were needed to help understand how reluctant public workers viewed the decision to move from the capital.

The report stated civil service management and unions needed to agree on appropriate arrangements regarding promotions. There also needed be a way of managing transfers as many of the issues involved had industrial relations implications and had to be discussed with staff.

In a statement responding to the report, Mr Ahern stuck to the original three-year target outlined by Minister for Finance Charlie McCreevy in Budget 2004 for the implementation of a substantial amount of the plan. "If we are serious about decentralisation, and we are, it is important to set ourselves a challenging target for implementation. I remain determined to see substantial progress achieved over the shortest possible time frame," he said.

Following Mr Ahern's assertion earlier this week in Galway that decentralisation might run behind time but would still be fully implemented, Fine Gael finance spokesman Richard Bruton said the Taoiseach's statement yesterday was clearly at odds with his previous open-ended comments.

"The reality is because of the slack way this programme has been handled, as highlighted by the Taoiseach's in Galway, towns expecting a jobs' bonanza are going to be sorely disappointed," he said.