From the outset, the Government has made it clear that participation in the decentralisation programme is voluntary. Due to the nature of the programme, it is not possible at this stage to estimate the number of public servants who do not wish to relocate as individual circumstances are open to change and, therefore, figures can fluctuate. The picture will become clearer over the coming period as staff are assigned to decentralising organisations.
The primary mechanism for placing civil servants who are in posts that are due to decentralise but wish to remain in Dublin is by way of bilateral transfer. As staff who have applied to decentralise continue to be transferred into decentralising organisations, the posts they vacate become available to those wishing to remain in Dublin. To date, in excess of 1,200 staff have been assigned to decentralising posts. In addition, my Department has been in discussions with the Civil Service unions on further arrangements to facilitate the placement of Dublin based staff. The objective of these arrangements is to provide to the Public Appointments Service details of staff who wish to remain in Dublin at each grade level so that a proportion of vacancies arising in Dublin based posts may be filled by those staff. These arrangements have been recently initiated for general service grades and discussions are continuing on appropriate arrangements for professional and technical grades. It is intended that the arrangements will continue over the full transition phase of the decentralisation programme.