I have agreed to share my time with Senator Ó Cuív. If he is here I will do so, if not, I will continue.
Adjournment Matter. - Tuam (Galway) Employment Prospects.
An Leas-Chathaoirleach
Is that agreed? Agreed.
First, I want to thank the Minister for coming here tonight to listen to my side of the story as it affects the town of Tuam. Since the closure of the sugar factory in Tuam I have been highlighting the need to establish some major industry in the town to absorb the surplus labour available because of that closure. So far my efforts have met with little success. The increasing dole queues, and the huge number of young people emigrating from the town and the parishes surrounding the town, is worrying and something drastic must be done to correct this. That is why I requested permission to raise this matter on the Adjournment to ask the Government to consider Tuam as a location under their decentralisation programme.
We would be happy to accommodate any Department of State in Tuam and their location there would give new hope to the community. We have the infrastructure. A new water and sewerage scheme is proposed and is hoped to be got under way this year. We have a good telephone service, good schools, easy access to University College, Galway which is 22 miles away and sites are also available. Therefore, there is no difficulty. All we need is a commitment from the Government.
I have already put on the record of the House the disastrous employment position in Tuam and I will not go over that again. Suffice it to say that since the sugar factory closed Homecare have closed and the engineering factory run by the sugar company have been asked to pare down their workforce, adding further to the gloom and depression in the town. Since the Government launched their decentralisation programme a number of Government Departments have been located outside Dublin. We have seen the prosperity that those Departments of State brought to the areas in question. Ballina got a branch of the Department of the Environment with 265 jobs; Cavan got a branch of the Department of Agriculture and Food with 150 jobs; Galway got a branch of the Department of Defence with 200 jobs; Sligo got a branch of the Department of Social Welfare with 310 jobs; Athlone got a branch of the Department of Education with 180 jobs; Killarney got a branch of the Department of Justice with 140 jobs. Letterkenny got a branch of the Department of Social Welfare with 190 jobs; a branch of Revenue transferred to Ennis providing 190 jobs, Limerick got 580 jobs and Nenagh, County Tipperary got 200 jobs. Dundalk, Waterford, Kilkenny, Cork city, Tullamore, Longford and Wexford are also to be included in that programme. Some 300 personnel are to be transferred to Dundalk and 400 to Waterford. Therefore, one can understand the encouragement and hope the transfer of a Department of State, providing that sort of employment, would give to a town like Tuam, particularly as it has suffered so much recently because of the closure of some of the factories in the town.
I hope it will be possible for the Government to include Tuam in their decentralisation programme. There would be a huge spin-off from the transfer of 200 or 300 jobs to a town like Tuam and it would certainly give a great fillip to the area. I am pleading with the Minister now to do that. All the services are available there, including a good site. I hope we will be included in the Government's decentralisation programme in the near future.
Gabhaim buíochas leis an Seanadóir Hussey as ucht deis a thabhairt dom labhairt ar an ábhar seo.
I have spoken about rural development many times in the Seanad, particularly in connection with the consequences of the closing of the Tuam Sugar Factory and its effect on the population, not only of the town itself, but of areas within a 20 mile radius of Tuam. The closure of a central industry which was established by a Fianna Fáil Government to provide not only economic development but economic development with a social face was very serious. Because of changing circumstances it became obvious that the long-term viability of a sugar plant in Tuam was no longer an option. With the changes in circumstances we now have to look to new ways of fulfilling the same type of role we fulfilled in earlier times through the placing of companies such as Bord na Móna and the sugar company in various locations around the country.
There is a great opportunity now, with the development of modern communications technology, to spread the benefits of service industries throughout the country. With computer link-up the work being done, for example in places like Tuam, Galway, Ballina and Sligo can be immediately available to people on screen in Dublin, Cork and so on and there is no reason why much of the work being carried out by the State cannot be decentralised. There is a strong case for the Tuam area because it has suffered large unemployment due to the closure of the sugar factory and other factors.
As somebody who has worked for a long time in rural development, I am aware that it is generally overlooked that for every job created in direct employment, whether it is in the service industry or in manufacturing, the spin-off tends to be two to three jobs in other sectors. Therefore, it is a fair estimation to say that if one creates 200 jobs through decentralisation in a town like Tuam the gross effect could be a net gain of up to 600 people gaining employment by providing services to that enterprise. We must now look on the type of work that is being done by the State sector as an industry in itself. It is a service industry and a particular type of service industry that is suited to decentralisation. As well as looking at Civil Service decentralisation, such as has happened in the towns mentioned by Senator Hussey, we should consider decentralising the head offices of semi-State companies, particularly those that already have a rural involvement.
Finally, some people would argue that the provision of this type of decentralised employment in Galway would answer the problem for Tuam. However, our experience is that employment of this type tends to have a radius of about 15 to 20 miles at maximum and its effect is not felt over the huge area that most people would suppose, particularly in relation to the smaller of two centres. For example, the creation of employment in Tuam would probably help Galway but the creation of more decentralised employment in Galway would not have the same benefit for Tuam. Therefore, I support Senator Hussey's comments on this motion. Tá súil agam go mbreathnóidh an tAire go báúil air seo agus go bhféachfear leis an bhfadhb iontach mór atá thart ar cheantar Thuaime maidir le dífhostaíocht a réiteach go gairid.
I would like to thank both Senators for their very constructive comments in relation to Tuam. I am well aware of the situation in Tuam, I had occasion to be in Tuam on a number of occasions and I am aware of its attractions. I agree with the Senator about the infrastructure in Tuam, the amount of work that has been done and the quality of educational facilities and standards, and so on there.
I welcome the opportunity to put on record the success to date of the Government's decentralisation programme.
The present programme is, as Senators may be aware, 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 to confine the revised programme to 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.
Phase 1 of the programme, involving Galway, Sligo, Ballina and Cavan, has been successfully completed, and while there is some time to run before the completion of the three tranches that make up Phase 2 of the programme involving the remaining eight centres, the Government's confidence and continuing commitment to the overall concept of decentralisation was recently highlighted by the announcement of the Minister for Finance of an extension to the scheme covering five additional centres countrywide — Tullamore, Wexford, Kilkenny, Longford and Cork city. The selection of these five additional centres to benefit from this extended decentralisation programme was not an easy choice and approximately 40 locations were considered. It is unfortunate that many of the communities and towns which were considered, including Tuam, had to be disappointed on this occasion. However, I am pleased to say, that County Galway has already benefited from the programme of decentralisation with the relocation of almost 200 staff from the Department of Defence to purpose built premises at Renmore. As I am sure the Members of this House will appreciate, the decentralisation programme is an ambitious one. However the Government are determined to ensure its successful implementation which will secure economic benefits to the various local communities throughout the country.
As I said earlier, the decentralisation programme embarked upon in 1980 is proceeding vigorously now. The Galway, Ballina, Cavan, Sligo, Phase 1, has been successfully completed. Construction in Athlone, Killarney and Letterkenny is well under way and is well advanced in Thurles. We have recently tied up contracts for the Nenagh and Ennis schemes, the proposal to renovate Sarsfield House and to provide new accommodation at Arran Quay in Limerick is well advanced and work should be getting under way on all these schemes very soon. Let me remind Senators that I initiated the case for decentralisation to Ennis in the early seventies. At that time a strong case was made with back-up documentation demonstrating the facilities of Adare, organised by the Adare County Development Team. The scheme of decentralisation was cancelled by the Coalition Government, which put back developments by five years; we are nevertheless, back on target now.
The only word of encouragement I can give is that when we were disappointed in Ennis on several occasions over the past ten or 15 years we did not let that distract us from our ambition to promote Ennis and to continue to put forward the case for decentralisation to Ennis. It is a long haul to get a development like this under way the view of the Minister is to speed up the scheme of decentralisation to the locations I have indentified. If we can do that successfully and speedily, I have no doubt that a further scheme will be put in place at some later stage. My only word of advice to the Senators involved is that they made a very good case; Tuam is a beautiful town, and its attractions are self-evident to anyone who has an opportunity to visit.
We all appreciate that Tuam has gone through a difficult time as regards the loss of employment in strategic industries but there are other agencies that must also help. I have taken a careful note of the points made in this useful debate. I will keep them in mind if the opportunity should ever arise for other towns to be adjudicated on for further decentralisation.
The Seanad adjourned at 8.20 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 21 June 1990.