Union calls for plan review

THE Government has come under further attack over its decentralisation plans with a leading public service union calling for a major review of the controversial programme.

The Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants yesterday claimed the Government’s decentralisation plans were causing serious risks to the public interest.

The union claimed the potential loss of specialist expertise on policy formulation could have a serious impact on Ireland’s role in negotiations and deliberations at EU level.

Although the union, which represents more than 3,000 senior managers in the commercial and non-commercial State sector supports decentralisation in principle, it claims the Government’s existing proposals have “fatal flaws”.

Its leaders yesterday called for changes to the scopeand time scale of the Government’s plans for decentralisation.

Addressing the union’s annual delegate conference in Dublin, AHCPS general secretary, Seán Ó Riordáin said decentralisation rather than pay was the issue dominating the industrial relations landscape.

A report on decentralisation commissioned by the union highlighted how more than 90% of specialist policy experts would be “scattered to a variety of locations”. It claimed the current programme was characterised by a “coerced voluntarism” approach which was creating serious human resources and industrial relations problems.

The AHCPS is the second leading public service union to attack decentralisation plans after IMPACT voiced similar complaints earlier this week.