Decentralisation on course to relocate 11,000 staff

Decentralised offices won’t be built outside Dublin unless the civil servants are ready to move into them, it was claimed today.

The Decentralisation Implementation Board (DIB) told the Finance and Public Service Committee that it was on course to have 4,000 staff relocated by the end of 2008 and 7,000 by the end of 2009.

DIB chairman Finbarr Flood said a total of 13,000 civil servants already work outside Dublin, including 2,000 in Cork and 1,100 in Limerick.

The DIB meets twice-monthly and met with the secretary generals of each department in recent months.

Richard Bruton of Fine Gael said Mr Flood had an enviable job because the decentralisation had no clear action plan from the start.

“I’m a supporter of decentralisation but I worry that this is going to be an expensive error in some ways,” he said.

“We know that many don’t want to move and that is a major worry for me.”

Mr Bruton said he could foresee half-filled buildings down the country with staff in Dublin unwilling to move.

The decentralisation plan was announced by former Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy in his budget speech in 2003.

The Opposition finance spokesman Mr Bruton today claimed that nobody wanted to move from Bus Eireann, the Sports Council or Failte Ireland.

Only one out of 90 wanted to move from the National Roads Authority, two out of 100 from the Aviation Authority and five out of 100 from the Valuations Office.

“Nobody is willing to say that some of these are just impractical.

“We’re ploughing ahead with the property side but not focusing in terms of making it work,” he added.

Mr Flood said there was no question of the decentralised offices being built if there wasn’t staff to fill them.

“We will not be out purchasing and committing to buildings until those difficulties are overcome. That is clear,” he said.

Mr Bruton replied: “It may be clear to your but it’s not clear to me.”

Mr Bruton claimed that offices built for the Probation & Welfare Service in Navan were lying empty because the staff didn’t want to move.

Mr Flood succeeded Phil Flynn as chairman of the DIB in April after Mr Flynn resigned.