William Cotter
Question:18 Mr. Cotter asked the Minister for Finance if he has any plans to relocate a Government Department in County Monaghan; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Written Answers. - Decentralisation Programme.
There are at present no plans to relocate a Government Department in County Monaghan.
The Government's current decentralisation programme is based on the original list of centres selected in 1980 when decentralisation of Government Departments to provincial centres was first proposed. These centres are at Athlone, Ballina, Cavan, Dundalk, Ennis, Galway, Killarney, Letterkenny, Limerick, Nenagh, Sligo and Waterford.
The decision that the revived programme should include the centres selected in 1980 was guided by the ready availability of sites in many of these locations, and the degree of preliminary planning which had been carried out regarding both the accommodation required and the staff to be transferred.
The decentralisation programme now under way is ambitious and the Government's priority is its implementation. Phase One of the programme, that is Ballina, Cavan, Galway and Sligo, has been successfully completed, but it will be some time before the three branches that make up Phase Two of the programme are completed.