THE GOVERNMENT must make a decision on the future of decentralisation to stop towns and businesses being left in limbo for more than two years, the Chamber of Commerce of Ireland has said.
Minister for Finance Brian Cowen announced that he intended to suspend the project to relocate more than 11,000 public and civil servants out of Dublin pending a review in 2011.
The result is that 37 regional towns will lose out on the transfer of more than 5,000 jobs from the capital. Many Government departments and some State agencies have already relocated their offices with the transfer of more than 2,000 workers.
Several hundred staff who have already relocated are unsure as to whether their colleagues will eventually follow, or if they will be recalled to Dublin.
Director of policy with the chamber, Seán Murphy, said the Government needs to conduct a cost/benefit analysis of decentralisation now, so that a final decision can be made on the project.
"What we need is clarity. The decision has effectively been kicked to touch to beyond 2011. The best way to get clarity would be if a decision was made now."
When the decentralisation plan was introduced by former finance minister Charlie McCreevy in the 2004 budget, people had a reasonable belief that it would take place, Mr Murphy said.
"For the first six months after the announcement there was a lot of belief that this was going to happen. A realist would have to say, with leases being taken out on a 25-year basis for offices in the greater Dublin area, that these offices aren't going to relocate."
However, he said people could not rely on supposition and needed certainty to move forward.
"There was an expectation in towns that they would have additional footfall, additional residents. There was a potential in a downturn for a Government department or agency to lift those towns, but that's not going to happen in a lot of cases."
Birr, Co Offaly is one town which has been badly hit by the decision. State employment agency Fás had been due to move to the town with the transfer of 378 jobs. This will not now go ahead, pending the review.
Birr Chamber of Commerce president Nigel Craughwell said that 300 workers bringing their families would have been a boost to the local economy.
"Not alone for retailers, but for housing locally. In hard economic times an extra 200 to 300 families would have been a another string to our economic bow," Mr Craughwell said.
Although the plan to move Fás to Birr would be reviewed in 2011, the town could not have faith that the agency would arrive, Mr Croughwell said, and must look elsewhere to generate business and fill empty houses.
"Fás as an option is something we really can't be looking towards anymore. We need to attract other business we need to see how we can fill the hole that's been left by Fás," he said. A spokeswoman for Fás said it would shortly meet with the Department of Finance to discuss the implications of the decision, including the future of 22 staff who have already relocated.
