Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 6 May 2004
17 Ms O. Mitchell asked the Minister for Finance if he has finalised discussions with the public service unions on the proposed centralised applications facility; if he has identified each of the locations at which an existing building is to be acquired; and the locations at which site purchase is proposed. [12928/04]
View answerThere have been ongoing discussions with the unions representing civil servants in a sub-committee of the Civil Service general council. These discussions commenced almost immediately after the budget announcement. In addition there have been a series of discussions with the ICTU group of unions representing staff in the State agencies. The central applications facility, CAF, will be launched next week. The terms under which the CAF will operate take account of the discussions held with the unions. It will be made clear in the CAF that there will have to be further discussions between management and staff interests about whether certain types of transfer requests can be facilitated and, if so, what conditions would apply, for example, where a person wishes to move from a State agency to the Civil Service or vice versa, or where a person wishes to transfer from one agency to another.
The Office of Public Works is currently assessing the proposals it has received for each of the locations. Most of the proposals are for the provision of sites but the potential to purchase existing buildings is still an option in a small number of locations. If a site is purchased, the move to the new location could take between two and three years: if an existing building is purchased the move could take place within a nine to 15 month timeframe.
