THE CONTROVERSIAL decentralisation programme introduced by the Fianna Fáil-PD administration in 2003 has been cancelled as part of the Government’s move to cut numbers and spending on the public service.
Millions have already been spent on the plan. A total of €338 million had been spent on property for the decentralisation programme including cost of sites, property acquisitions, fit-outs and rents up to December 2009. Some €44 million of this had been spent on acquiring sites in locations where plans to transfer public service offices and State agencies have been postponed.
This includes more than €10 million spent by the OPW buying a site of less than two acres in Drogheda, to provide a new headquarters for the Department of Social Protection.
Forty projects where no premises had been secured or no staff were in place have been cancelled, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin announced yesterday.
A further 32 projects will be left in situ on the basis that permanent accommodation for transferring staff is completed, or will be completed shortly.
The remaining 22 projects, which include some where permanent accommodation has been provided but not enough staff have been found to transfer, are being reviewed. Mr Howlin said the Government would be making a decision on this review shortly.
The decentralisation programme has been dogged by controversy since it was unveiled by then minister for finance Charlie McCreevy in the 2004 budget. The reluctance of staff to move, rising land acquisition prices and a mismatch with strategic planning objectives were just some of the problems encountered.
Many of the decentralisation projects have been on ice since the last government suspended the programme in 2008, so Mr Howlin’s announcement was not unexpected. The Government’s decision, announced yesterday, brings clarity to the fate of most of the decentralisation projects, but there is likely to be intense local lobbying over the future of the 22 projects still being reviewed.
However, in most of these cases, the review is likely to centre on what to do with the “advance party” of staff in each situation. These have been in limbo for some years, not yet knowing if colleagues will eventually join them, or if they will be recalled to Dublin and face the prospect of moving house and relocating their families once again.
The decision to cancel 40 projects, even if expected, will come as a blow to regional towns at a time of high unemployment and growing emigration. A total of 4,553 jobs were to be transferred outside Dublin in these projects.
The biggest project was in Kildare town where 380 staff of the Revenue Commissioners were supposed to relocate, but this will not now happen.
Similarly, the transfer of 300 staff with the HSE to Naas has been cancelled, as has been the relocation of 258 Department of Social Protection workers to Donegal town and the move of 200 staff with the CIÉ Group to Mitchelstown, Co Cork.
Also in Co Cork, Youghal, has lost out on 200 staff who were supposed to move to offices of the Public Appointments Service and Valuation Office. Drogheda is the worst-hit town, losing five projects with a total of 602 jobs.
On the list of projects being left in situ, Navan has five, including the Coroners Service, Revenue and the office of the director of the Probation Service. A number of agency moves which are being retained, such as the transfer of Bord Iascaigh Mhara to Clonakilty, Co Cork, and the location of the National Property Services Regulatory Authority in Navan, Co Meath, are likely to come under further scrutiny.
TIMELINE
December 2003Minister Charlie McCreevy unveils his "big D" announcement during the budget speech: the decentralisation of 10,300 Dublin-based civil servants to 58 locations in 25 counties by 2007. Eight government departments were to be located in towns as far apart as Cavan and Killarney.
July 2004McCreevy describes uptake of jobs as disappointing, as only 2,200 civil servants express interest in moving outside Dublin.
July 2004Unions urge a rethink of the policy, saying that most of their members will not move out of Dublin "under any circumstances".
November 2004Government scales back original plans by cutting 29 regional towns from the first phase of the decentralisation programme.
2005The Office of Public Works spends €4.5 million on a 1.2-acre site in Killarney, on which new offices for the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport are built.
October 2005Tom Parlon, PD minister of state at the OPW who has responsibility for the programme, admits timetable for decentralisation is overly ambitious.
May 2006Taoiseach Bertie Ahern admits the timeframe for decentralisation is "too tight".
May 2006Former taoiseach Garret FitzGerald calls decentralisation a "disastrous and futile stroke" which threatens to seriously damage the efficiency of public administration.
October 2006Minister for Finance Brian Cowen says the programme is on target.
2007The OPW spends over €10 million buying a site of less than two acres in Drogheda, to provide a new headquarters for the Department of Social Protection.
May 2007Parlon loses his seat in the general election.
October 2007Plans to move hundreds of Revenue Commissioners computer staff out of Dublin are abandoned after their boss warns it would cause chaos in the organisation.
June 2008Taoiseach Brian Cowen insists decentralisation will continue and declares the programme "an unmitigated success".
Octo
ber 2008The government decides to suspend the decentralisation programme for at least two years.
December 2009McCreevy, now outgoing European commissioner, says he has absolutely no regrets about decentralisation.
June 2010Fianna Fáil TD and former government chief whip Tom Kitt describes decentralisation as a "crude and botched initiative". Just 3,159 public servants have been moved to 37 locations.
September 2010Minister for social protection Éamon Ó Cuív says the Cabinet intends to review decentralisation plans.
November 2011Fine Gael-Labour Government announces the cancellation of the programme.