It’s about time we decentralise

Pressure is mounting on the Government to implement the promised decentralisation of the various Government departments and agencies.

In December 1999, Minister for Finance Charlie McCreevy announced that virtually the whole civil service and non-commercial semi-state bodies would be identified for decentralisation by the middle of the following year.

Each week the Department of Finance received two or three submissions for decentralisation. One hundred and thirty-four towns and cities have formally applied for consideration. Only a fraction of that number can be facilitated, as there is a limit to the number of departments and agencies that can be transferred.