Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 8 July 2004
207 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism the major factors which led to the particular decentralised location chosen, and the criteria used for selection in respect of each decentralisation move in his Department outlined in the Budget 2004 statement. [21061/04]
View answerThe Government decided on the locations in its programme of decentralisation announced in budget 2004, following consideration of a wide range of factors. These included the need to achieve a fit with the national spatial strategy, in terms of the gateways, hubs and their respective catchments; the location of existing decentralised offices; the desirability of clustering a Department's decentralised units within a region; the importance of respecting the scale and character of locations in terms of their capacity to absorb the number of new jobs involved; the existence of good transport links, by road, rail and-or air and the general infrastructural capacity in the areas selected.
I am satisfied that the relevant criteria are met in the case of Killarney, Mallow and Kilkenny, the locations to which it is proposed to move my Department and three of my Department's agencies, the Irish Sports Council, Fáilte Ireland and the Arts Council respectively.
