Experts criticise plan to decentralise foreign aid unit

Two leading experts in overseas development have criticised the Government's plans to decentralise the overseas aid programme to Limerick.

A former head of the OECD's development directorate, Mr Bernard Wood, has said the planned move is a "potentially damaging setback" to Ireland's aid programme. His comments are made in a review of the programme by Prof Helen O'Neill, retired director of UCD's development studies centre, who says the plan will damage the integrity of Ireland's foreign policy and "fossilise" its development work.

According to Mr Wood, a Canadian who consults widely for many governments and is familiar with Ireland's aid programme, the decentralisation plan may undo recent improvements in the programme.

"There is a real danger that it would - literally - distance the expert development perspective from wider foreign policy and other decisions, and downgrade the hard-won standing of development as a major part of Irish foreign policy and/or careers in the foreign service," he says.

According to Prof O'Neill, the Government's "misguided" plan to move civil servants working in the aid programme to Limerick raises "very serious governance issues" for the delivery of public services. She says the move would negatively impact on the efficiency and effectiveness of the work of Development Co-operation Ireland and reduce its capacity to maintain coherence with the Department of Foreign Affairs and other Departments.

Her comments are made in an annual review of the aid programme, to be published later this year in the international journal of the Royal Irish Academy.

According to Prof O'Neill, development is recognised as an integral part of Irish foreign policy and "decentralisation of a major division of DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) to Limerick would damage that integrity". Of 124 employees in Development Co-operation Ireland (DCI), only 10 have so far applied to move. Ms O'Neill says that as a result, any move is likely to lead to "a haemorrhage" of middle- and senior-ranking staff that could irreparably damage the linkage between DCI and those working overseas.

"Even assuming that there is great will to make decentralisation work, a process that freezes most staff in Limerick and in the field is a recipe for the type of fossilisation over time that has already led to the demise of at least one development agency."

She also predicts other difficulties, including a loss of "institutional memory", increased costs and time spent travelling, less involvement by Oireachtas members and reduced availability of research information.