Decentralisation applications will be taken after deadline

The Government will accept applications from civil and public servants seeking decentralisation beyond a deadline which expires at midnight.

A spokesman for the Department of Finance said the midnight deadline for receipt of applications to the Central Applications Facility (CAF) was for "priority applications" only.

The CAF would remain in operation, although applications received after tonight's deadline were not guaranteed they would get their region of choice, he said.

He said the number of applications received would not be available for two to three weeks but  admitted it was likely to fall well short of the 10,300 civil and public servants the Government hopes to transfer by the end of 2007.

The CAF website was temporarily out of action today, due, according to the Department, to the number of people trying to "submit applications at the last minute".

Specialist staff have shown little interest in the scheme. The first deadline of July 8th was extended to midnight following the poor response from staff in State agencies, and there are concerns that few extra applications have been received.

Only 2,200 civil servants based in Dublin had applied for over 6,300 regional positions available under the scheme as of July 8th,. However, a further 2,189 civil servants already based outside the capital applied seeking relocation.

A spokesman for the Department said that of the jobs on offer, 2,249 were public service posts. However, only 459 applications were received for these positions and he admitted most of these were from civil servants.

Speaking just hours before the deadline is reached, a Siptu spokesperson said they expected a meeting between the ICTU sub-committee on state agencies and the Department of Finance to discuss the low uptake by specialist staff before the end of the month.

Siptu and Amicus advised their members to boycott the plan. Both unions said today they expected only a handful more staff to have come forward since July.

The "distinct difference" in the level of response to the CAF between civil and public servants was noted in the second report Second Report of the Decentralisation Implementation Group, chaired by Mr Phil Flynn.

This report, which is due to be presented to Government after the summer break , also notes that a number of industrial relations and human resource issues need to be addressed.

The low uptake of decentralised posts raises the possibility that Government Departments could be obliged to train hundreds of new officials before State agencies are able to operate in their new locations.