Civil service plan not realistic

THE Government’s plan for decentralisation is unworkable and should be abandoned, the Irish Rural Link annual conference was told in Portumna, Co Galway, yesterday.

Mairead McGuinness, the journalist and broadcaster, who is a Fine Gael Euro election candidate in the East constituency, said the target of having 10,300 civil servants decentralised to 52 locations by 2006 was unrealistic. The figure would be closer to 2,500.

“How can anyone realistically expect to reverse decades of a centralised public administration policy in three years? It will be nearer to 2012 when the figure of 10,300 is reached,” she said.

Ms McGuinness said political “strokism” must be replaced by a properly thought out and co-ordinated set of policies if rural Ireland is to have any hope of achieving its potential.

“The reality is that EU support for rural development, which has declined significantly since the mid-1990s, will decline still further as most rural development funding will go to Objective 1 regions in the enlarged EU.

“The onus is on the Government to commit itself fully to, and fund, a proper rural development policy. We can no longer rely on the EU to do that for us.”