Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 29 June 2004
25 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the plans to decentralise his Department; if a site has been found; the percentage of employees in his Department wishing to move; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19295/04]
View answer38 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the details of surveys that have been undertaken, in regard to proposals for decentralisation, to establish the number of persons employed in his Department and in boards or agencies operating under the aegis of his Department who are willing to move to the new locations announced by the Minister for Finance in his Budget 2004 speech; the results of any such survey; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19223/04]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 25 and 38 together.
As part of the Government's decentralisation plan, it is proposed to relocate my Department's Dublin-based headquarter staff and a number of its agencies as follows:
|
Location |
Approximate number of staff |
|
Cavan |
380 (Department) |
|
Clonakilty |
90 (Department) |
|
Drogheda |
49 (Maritime Safety Directorate and Coast Guard) |
|
Clonakilty |
90 (BIM) |
|
Dundalk |
45 (Sustainable Energy Ireland) |
|
Carrick-on-Shannon |
65 (Central Fisheries Board) |
As Deputies will be aware, civil servants and State agency employees have been invited to indicate their interest, in order of preference, in moving to any of the 51 decentralisation locations across 25 counties. This exercise is being carried out by the Civil Service Commission using a computer web-based mechanism called the central applications facility. After the first eight weeks of the central applications facility, the decentralisation implementation committee will analyse the levels of interest in the various locations and will submit its second report next month.
Until such time as the Flynn committee has submitted its second report, there will be no reliable data available on the numbers of staff interested in relocating. While some informal preliminary surveys were conducted very shortly after the Government's announcement on decentralisation, these can be best described as snapshots of the initial reactions to the announcement. They did not have the benefit of the up to date, detailed, specific information now associated with the central applications facility, nor were they informed by the work that has been carried out by the Flynn committee in moving the decentralisation agenda forward. I would not, therefore, attribute any validity to the outcome of such surveys, and suggest that it would be prudent to await the official data emerging in the next Flynn report.
