Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 29 June 2004
281 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Health and Children the risk analysis and the cost benefit analysis which he has carried out or proposes to carry out in respect of decentralisation as it affects his Department. [19088/04]
View answer282 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Health and Children the average annual increase in salary costs, overtime and travel to, from and in the decentralised offices in the three years following decentralisation compared to these costs for those business units in the three years preceding decentralisation, in respect of the last decentralisation by his Department. [19103/04]
View answer283 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Health and Children the number of persons decentralised and the full duration of the project, in respect of the last decentralisation by his Department; the number of internal and external transfers which were required to obtain the requisite number of persons decentralising; the amount of time necessary to train decentralising persons and the percentage and duration of overlapping staff which was required; and the additional costs for overtime and travel and subsistence incurred. [19118/04]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 281 to 283, inclusive, together.
While preliminary work has been taking place on decentralisation, my Department and the bodies established under the aegis of my Department, are not required at this stage to undertake a risk assessment exercise in respect of the public service decentralisation programme. Until such time as there is a final decision by Government on the location of the headquarters of the Health Service Executive and associated agencies the information request by the Deputy cannot be provided. This decision is expected shortly.
On foot of a Government decision in 1992, a portion of my Department, namely the General Register Officer, GRO, decentralised to Roscommon in 1996. In order to retain an acceptable level of service to the public and to allow time for the roll out of the GRO modernisation programme, incorporating major legislative change and the provision of electronic registration it was decided to proceed with the decentralisation on a phased basis.
There are now 40 staff employed in the decentralised office. Of this number, seven staff transferred from my Department, two staff were directly recruited and the balance of 31 transferred from other Departments over a number of years. The Roscommon office has, to date, been dedicated to new and additional preparatory work in the form of the capture of several million entries of historic registration data, for conversion to an electronic format, including an extensive quality assurance process. This work while facilitating decentralisation primarily arises due to the GRO modernisation programme, led by the Department of Social and Family Affairs in association with my Department, as distinct from decentralisation alone. For this reason, the GRO Dublin office has continued to operate to full capacity to date, including the provision of service to the public and the roll out of electronic registration.
The preparatory work carried out in Roscommon is now nearing completion and this will allow for the work traditionally done in Dublin to transfer to the decentralised office by mid 2005. Overlap training for the finalisation of the project has recently commenced, on a phased basis. For this reason, and in particular the fact that the work being undertaken at both locations to date has not been one and the same or overlap work of any kind, comparison of increases in annual average costs over periods of three years is neither feasible nor appropriate in this particular instance.
