Decentralisation Programme.

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 29 June 2004

Tuesday, 29 June 2004

Questions (82, 83, 84)

Enda Kenny

Question:

79 Mr. Kenny asked the Taoiseach the number of posts decentralised in the Central Statistics Office move to Cork; the number of posts filled on promotion and by staff maintaining their current grade in each case; the number that were already serving staff and the number in each case that were transferred from other Departments or semi-State organisations of the total number who decentralised; the period of time which elapsed between the initial announcement of the decentralisation plans and the date on which the decentralisation was completed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19034/04]

Richard Bruton

Question:

83 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Taoiseach 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. [19094/04]

Richard Bruton

Question:

84 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Taoiseach 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. [19109/04]

Written answers

The Taoiseach

I propose to take Questions Nos. 79, 83 and 84 together.

A total of 383 posts were decentralised to Cork by the Central Statistics Office in 1994. Of these, 158 staff transferred in their existing grade, 59 from the CSO and 99 from other Departments. A total of 116 staff were transferred on promotion and 109 were recruited to the Civil Service. The decentralisation was announced in June 1991 and the subsequent move to Cork took place in two phases in January 1994, when about 300 staff moved to the Cork office. The remaining staff were appointed during the course of 1994.

The CSO began putting the professional management structure in place from February 1993 with the recruitment and training of statisticians. This early recruitment allowed for on the job training and overlap in Dublin before moving to Cork. Detailed manuals were prepared describing the work procedures, statistical processes and computer systems in all sections of the office and job descriptions were prepared for all posts from staff officer level upwards. The intake of volunteers from other Departments began in summer 1993. Training of new staff was mainly on the job and was conducted by serving staff and line management, with some courses also provided by the CSO training unit and the Civil Service training centre.

Details of salary costs, overtime and travel and subsistence for the CSO for the years 1991 to 1997, as published in the appropriation accounts, are set out in the following table. A comparable breakdown is not available in respect of activities which transferred to Cork. These figures include a number of large scale periodic activities such as the population and agricultural censuses in 1991, the household budget survey in 1994 and the census of population in 1996.

Year	Salaries	of which: overtime	Travel & subsistence	of which: home travel
	€m	€m	€m	€m
1991	8.717	0.244	0.429	n.a.*
1992	10.865	0.227	0.310	n.a.
1993	11.160	0.226	0.364	n.a.
1994	11.392	0.300	0.578	0.321
1995	11.306	0.301	0.519	0.350
1996	14.227	0.255	0.484	0.297
1997	15.580	0.366	0.565	0.376

*n.a. Details not available.