NEGOTIATING THE decentralisation of the Department of Foreign Affairs was more difficult than negotiating the Belfast Agreement, a top civil servant has said.
Speaking at the Public Accounts Committee yesterday, the secretary general of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Dermot Gallagher, said decentralisation of the department to Limerick presented an "enormous challenge".
He said he was the last serving civil servant on these islands present at Northern Ireland negotiation from Sunningdale onward.
Asked by Green Party deputy Ciarán Cuffe what percentage of the staff at his department had agreed to go to Limerick, Mr Gallagher said he believed a "critical mass" would go, but did not currently have exact figures.
"It was one of the most difficult negotiations we've done," he said.
Mr Gallagher said a breakthrough with the union had just occurred, and he was happy that greater numbers would travel to Limerick than opt to stay in Dublin. They would be "ready to go by the summer".
He said the move was being made in stages because the fear was that if everyone went down on day one there would be a "Heathrow" situation, and everything would fall apart.
The committee was also told that the department is looking at a range of options to bring RTÉ to Irish immigrants in the UK and northern Europe.
Ray Bassett, assistant secretary at foreign affairs, said they currently favoured the use of Free-Sat to serve as a platform to deliver the services.
The service was free to air and costs €200 per set.
He said the department would make a fund available for hardship cases.
Mr Bassett said RTÉ intended to put together "what will amount to almost a separate channel" to be supplied to Irish people abroad.
