My Department has been making good progress in the relocation of the required 250 posts to Carlow under the Government's Decentralisation Programme. Officials of my Department, in consultation with the Department of Finance and the OPW, as well as decentralising staff and Business Units, opened an advance office in Carlow on July 30th 2007. There are currently 101 staff in the advance office in Carlow.
There were three specialised technical posts due to be decentralised from my Department and two of these posts have decentralised already. There are 93 administration posts at Executive Officer or higher due to be decentralised from my Department, of which 46 posts have already been decentralised. Thirty-five officers at Executive Officer or higher who have decentralised to Carlow or will decentralise there in the future, were in my Department when they applied to decentralise.
Business units that have decentralised or are to decentralise have the following numbers of officers at Executive Officer or higher who were in my Department when they applied to decentralise:
National Employment Rights Authority: 24
Redundancy Payments: 1
Insolvency Payments: 1
Companies Registration Office & Registrar of Friendly Societies: 6