Following the announcement of the Government's decentralisation programme, under which 250 staff of my Department will decentralise to Carlow, a survey was conducted within the Department with a view to establishing the numbers of staff interested in decentralising to locations outside Dublin. A total of 503 staff responded to the survey, 69 of whom indicated that they would be prepared to transfer to Carlow and 160 of whom indicated a willingness to decentralise to other locations outside Dublin.
With regard to the agencies under the aegis of the Department which will be decentralised, surveys have been carried out in FÁS, decentralising to Birr, and the Health and Safety Authority, decentralising to Thomastown. Out of the 413 Dublin based FÁS staff who were surveyed, 30 expressed an interest in decentralising to Birr. Out of the 110 HSA staff surveyed, 15 expressed an interest. The National Standards Authority of Ireland, which will be decentralising to Arklow, and Enterprise Ireland, which will be decentralising to Shannon, have not conducted a survey of their staff on the issue of decentralisation.
