Vol. 440 No. 4
91 Mr. Briscoe asked the Minister for Finance his views on whether the time has come to cease decentralising sections of Government Departments in view of the above average unemployment in parts of Dublin and the unemployment average generally in Dublin; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
As the Deputy will be aware and as I have stated in the House on many occasions, decentralisation is a major policy objective of the Government. The policy is based on the principles of devolving decision-making to local areas, and of the need for a more widespread location of public services and job opportunities.
The launching of the decentralisation programme in 1987 reflected the Government's belief that the more widespread location of public service employment was a desirable long-term objective to help reduce regional imbalances and the pressure on the Dublin region. The Government considered that the concentration of human and material resources in Dublin at the expense of the peripheral areas had for too long effectively deprived the regions of development capacity.
The Government also considered that over the years Dublin had grown in size and in population at a much faster rate than had the rest of the country. The result was that an imbalance between the Dublin region and other regions had evolved. The Government considered that the development of the larger urban centres of the regions would be essential to provide a counter-attraction to Dublin to provide a sufficient range of facilities for attracting manufacturing and service jobs to absorb local unemployed labour.
The concentration of population and development in the Dublin region placed an enormous burden on the metropolitan area. It resulted in economic and social costs and created environmental problems. Over the years concentration of public service jobs in the Dublin area has magnified these problems.
The total number of posts transferred to the provinces through the programme is not significant in terms of total numbers employed in the public service, while the benefits to the centres chosen have made the programme very worthwhile.
Many of the provincial towns which have been chosen as decentralisation centres have suffered from emigration and from internal migration. The influx of public servants, many of them with spouses and children has helped to rejuvenate the towns thus adding to the social and economic viability of those areas. Many public servants were themselves involuntary migrants and have taken the opportunity to return to their roots.
