Just 2,000 public servants to move by end of 2007

ONLY 2,000 of 10,600 public servants will have moved to decentralised posts by the end of 2007, the date the Government originally promised the programme would be completed.

The slow progress of the controversial scheme is revealed in the latest report of the Decentralisation Implementation Group (DIG), published yesterday.

The DIG said the programme’s implementation is “progressing satisfactorily” but problems included:

* staff who wish to remain in Dublin.

* difficulties in relocating IT divisions of large departments outside the capital.

* ongoing difficulties with State agencies.

In relation to State agencies, the report says that while progress was made by some, “there has been a marked lack of action in some other agencies”.

Some 30 agencies are due to relocate, involving 2,340 posts. While seven have been identified as early movers, opposition to the move within one of those agencies, FÁS, has been referred to the Labour Court.

The DIG also says it is aware that the Department of Transport is examining the transfer of Bus Éireann to Mitchelstown. It urges this be clarified as a matter of urgency but does not disclose if the original decision may now be reviewed.

The property programme is completed or well advanced in 34 of the 53 locations, and the DIG says departments and offices will have a presence in 29 locations within 18 months.

While 2,100 staff have been assigned, only 500 have moved so far.

The report says the targets set out in June 2005 that 6,800 staff will be moved in the next three years is still on schedule, though it adds that some will happen later than originally projected.

Finance Minister Brian Cowen welcomed the report, calling it a success.

However, Labour’s Joan Burton said the Government had no reason to be upbeat, as 2,000 transfers by 2008 was a “far cry” from original proposals: “Only a government with a record as dismal as this could regard meeting 20% of the target a success.”