Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 23 February 2005
157 Mr. Walsh asked the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the provisions being put in place to facilitate the 180 staff who have volunteered through the central applications facility to decentralise to Clonakilty, County Cork; the timescale for this development; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6338/05]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Government's decentralisation programme provides for the relocation of my Department's seafood and coastal zone functions, involving 91 posts, to Clonakilty. An Bord Iascaigh Mhara, accounting for 93 posts, is also to be relocated to Clonakilty.
The latest information from the Public Appointments Service, formerly the Civil Service Commission, indicates that 140 expressions of interest had been received for the 91 posts in the Department's seafood and coastal zone functions and 36 for the 93 Bord Iascaigh Mhara posts in Clonakilty. The Public Appointments Service has, in recent weeks, provided details to the Department of applicants expressing an interest in decentralising to Clonakilty. The Department is examining these data in the context of the transfer protocol agreed recently between the Department of Finance and staff representative organisations.
The Department is in ongoing liaison with the Office of Public Works regarding the acquisition, by OPW, of a suitable site for both the Department and Bord Iascaigh Mhara, and on detailed specification of our requirements to assist with the building design element.
The decentralisation implementation group has indicated, in its latest report, that the anticipated time for the completion of facilities in Clonakilty is early 2007.
