Fresh setback to decentralisation plans

THE Government’s troubled plan to take thousands of civil servants out of Dublin has suffered a further setback with only 15 of the several hundred workers at Enterprise Ireland willing to move, a union leader said yesterday.

Labelling the decentralisation project flawed, SIPTU branch organiser Owen Reidy called for State agencies to be removed from the scheme. “In Enterprise Ireland — one of the largest State agencies included in the decentralisation plan — only 15 out of 300 staff members have indicated any interest in relocating from Dublin to Shannon.”

It is the second crisis to hit decentralisation in the last month with 400 employees at the State training body, FÁS, fighting plans to move staff to Birr, Co Offaly.