Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 18 Feb 1993

Vol. 426 No. 3

Adjournment Debate. - Decentralisation of Revenue Office.

Mr. D. Ahern

I wish to thank the Chair for allowing me to raise this issue. I am delighted the decentralisation programme has been extended to Dundalk, a town which has had a tortuous history. More than a year ago the Minister for Finance announced that 200 staff from the Revenue Commissioners and the Office of Public Works would be stationed in Dundalk.

As a consequence of the completion of the Single European Market there was a surplus of approximately 100 customs and Excise staff in the greated Dundalk area and the Government decided to create roughly 90 jobs to accommodate them. The Revenue Commissioners now say they have met their commitment to Dundalk under the decentralisation programme and in effect the town will get much fewer than the promised 200 jobs. That is not acceptable because even in the early eighties unemployment in Dundalk was above the national average. I ask the Minister to coerce the Revenue Commissioners or some other Department, with the Office of Public Works, to decentralise to Dundalk so that the offices which will be built, pending planning permission and approval by the Office of Public Works, will be filled by the number of staff promised.

I do not wish to denigrate the efforts of the Department, the Revenue Commissioners or the Office of Public Works in this regard. We acknowledge that jobs were substituted, but the original commitment to provide 100 extra jobs in the area should be honoured.

Minister for Finance (Mr. B. Ahern)

I acknowledge the points made by my colleague, Deputy Dermot Ahern. I am aware of his keen interest in the decentralisation programme over the past number of years.

When the Government announced in July 1991 that it had decided to decentralise sections of the office of the Revenue Commissioners to Dundalk, it was agreed with the commissioners that the matter could be dealt with in the context of the surplus of Customs and Excise staff which would arise in the Dundalk area as a consequence of the completion of the Single European Market.

The introduction of the Single Market and, in particular, the elimination of the fiscal frontier controls between member states had the implication of creating an overall surplus of approximately 600 customs and excise staff. Within the Dundalk region 88 customs and excise staff were identified as surplus.

In tackling the surplus situation the Revenue Commissioners set themselves the objective of providing alternative work for the staff affected in, or close to, their existing locations so as to minimise the disruption to the staff and their families. The Deputy will recall that was an issue where he and others lobbied to try to minimise the severity of the disruption of domestic arrangements of a great number of staff.

Arising from the Single Market, including the surplus situation, the Government decided to give Revenue responsibility, inter alia, for the new work areas relating to the collection of Community intrastat statistics and VAT information exchange system. It was further decided to locate these work areas in Dundalk. Approximately 90 staff have been assigned to this new work in Dundalk and, as a result, the issue of compulsory retirement or redeployment of staff from the area has been avoided.

On the basis of the situation I have outlined, I am satisfied that the Revenue Commissioners have met their commitment in relation to the decentralisation programme to Dundalk. They have done so in a difficult situation by making the best possible arangements to protect the jobs of those staff based in Dundalk, and in such a way that they have been able to remain in the area and help the economy when it appeared that these jobs would be lost to Dundalk.

The Government's decentralisation programme envisaged 125-150 posts for Dundalk; 90 of those posts have now been provided by the Revenue Commissioners and about 60 staff from the Office of Public Works will also be transferred to Dundalk bringing the total to 150. I will keep the Deputy informed and I thank him for asking the question.