The Patents Office, an office of my Department, was decentralised to Kilkenny in 1998. There are currently 82 staff employed in 72 posts in the Patents Office in Kilkenny. A total of 63 posts were decentralised in 1998, of which 15 staff were located from within the Department, 43 were transferred from other Departments and five specialist staff were directly recruited to the Patents Office. With regard to people changes required to achieve decentralisation, the best estimate of the Department is that there were an average of 3.5 people changes for every job decentralised.
The cost of the decentralisation, which includes fitting out of accommodation and IT requirements, is estimated at €361,000. It has not been possible to quantify the staffing costs associated with the move to Kilkenny given the required training overlap with existing staff for new staff in advance of the move to Kilkenny; the provision of training for staff relocating from the Patents Office to other areas of the Department and the total administrative costs involved in the processing of staffing, organisational and IT issues resulting from the move to Kilkenny. The associated administrative costs would also include the time and effort of staff in personnel units of other Government Departments, staff of the Office of Public Works and the Office of the Civil Service and Local Appointments Commissioners who all contributed to the move of the Patents Office to Kilkenny.
