Where I stand on decentralisation
If your reporter had done some research of his own, rather than simply regurgitate Mr Parlon’s words, he would have discovered that, in my Dáil speech on this, I made a clear distinction between the relocation of back-office type functions out of Dublin and the relocation of headquarters functions.
I believe that, for the sake of the coherence of policymaking, the headquarter functions of Government agencies should all be in the one place, ie, the capital city (whatever city that is).
On the other hand, I have no objection to back-office type functions being relocated outside the capital, something that has been going on for years with the support of successive governments.
The Irish civil service is one of the great achievements of the early years of the Irish State and the decision physically to break it up is one of worst decisions any Irish Government has taken in 80 years.
Policymakers need to be near one another so that they get to know one another’s thinking and can react quickly to a crisis. This will be impossible if key policymakers are dispersed up to five hours’ journey apart from one another. Teleconferencing is stiff and formal and is no substitute for personal contact.
I know of no other democracy where such a plan is envisaged.
We should not forget that Ireland has become a successful economy precisely because there is a ‘one-stop shop’ at which incoming investors can get all the answers they need. A dispersal of policymakers will destroy that one-stop shop.
Modern studies in economic development, by the World Bank and others, indicate that the quality of governance is even more important than tax incentives and labour costs in determining whether a country prospers. This reckless dispersal of key civil service policymakers will gravely damage the quality of governance in Ireland.
Given that most Government policy decisions involve several departments and ministers, dispersal of ministers and key civil service decision-makers around the country will make it much more difficult to get coherent decisions. Huge amounts of time and money will be wasted travelling to meetings that can be set up at a moment’s notice under present arrangements.
This is a more important issue than the Irish Examiner seems to realise and it deserves something better than the snide treatment it received in the August 12 issue of your paper.
John Bruton TD
Dáil Éireann
Kildare Street
Dublin 2
