Impact union attacks decentralisation 'farce'

The Impact trade union claimed today the Government is planning to fill specialist decentralised civil service jobs with juniors because senior staff are refusing to move out of Dublin.

Only 20 per cent of the 10,000 staff earmarked for decentralisation have expressed a willingness to leave Dublin.

Under the decentralisation plan announced two years ago, staff were promised that they will not be forced to move if they do not wish to do so.

But the union said it has obtained figures showing that the take-up among senior civil servants of decentralisation is way below the level hoped for by the Government.

Their responsibilities in the new offices will be taken up by junior staff promoted solely on the basis that they were willing to leave the capital, Impact said.

It also claimed 850 senior and specialist civil servants - including architects, valuers, engineers, probation officers and cartographers - will be left without duties in Dublin when their departments move offices.

Over 250 of them are working in jobs the Government intends to decentralise. "They have no idea where they will be based or what they will be asked to do. This is totally unacceptable," said Impact National Secretary Louise O'Donnell.

"This is becoming an expensive farce, devised by the Government and paid for by the taxpayer," Ms O'Donnell added.