Work is currently underway in my Department to give effect to the decision of the Government on decentralisation. Nine offices or sections of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform involving close to 1,000 staff are scheduled to decentralise to seven locations over the lifetime of this programme. Transfers of staff between Departments and offices who have applied to decentralise to these locations are currently being processed in accordance with human resource protocols agreed at central level.
To date six staff have relocated to Tipperary to work in the private security authority. I would also remind the Deputy that over 200 staff of my Department have already relocated to Kerry under a previous decentralisation programme.