IMPACT demands review of decentralisation ‘madness’

IMPACT yesterday demanded the Government “stop the madness” and initiate an immediate review of the decentralisation process, which it described as “a big, white elephant eating up money faster than it can be printed”.

At the trade union’s annual delegate conference in Kilkenny, national secretary Louise O’Donnell said decentralisation had to be subject to business and financial analysis.

She said: “Why, after five years, has there been no audit of what has happened? Isn’t it time we talked about the big, white elephant sitting in the corner of the room, that’s eating up money faster than it can be printed — decentralisation. Should this not be the first place that we look at costs and expenditure? Does anybody even know how much it is costing the taxpayer to maintain this white elephant, particularly when we are still purchasing fields and empty buildings?”