Ministers stand up for decentralisation

Two Ministers yesterday made a strong defence of the decentralisation programme at ceremonies to mark the relocation of 230 Department of Social and Family Affairs staff to offices in Sligo and Carrick on Shannon, Co Leitrim.

Minister of State Tom Parlon insisted that the Government's target of decentralising 10,000 jobs would be met by the end of 2010. He did not accept that specialist staff who, he said, make up 10 per cent of the Civil Service, would not be moving out of the capital. "Negotiations are progressing," he said.

Mr Parlon and Minister for Social Affairs Séamus Brennan were attending the official opening of a €10 million extension to the department's Social Welfare Services office in Sligo, which now accommodates 600 staff, including 100 decentralised personnel.

The Ministers also visited the department's new offices in Carrick on Shannon, which will accommodate 130 staff from April 17th.

Mr Brennan said he hoped a further 95 jobs would move to Carrick on Shannon next year and he pointed out that close to 70 per cent of his department's workforce were now based outside the capital, either in decentralised or local offices.

Neither Minister could say how many of the newly decentralised jobs in the northwest involved staff who had relocated from the capital rather than other regional offices, but Mr Brennan insisted the 230 new posts in the northwest represented a "clear statement" that the Government was delivering its decentralisation programme.

Mr Parlon said that by the end of this year, decentralised staff would be working in 30 locations around the country. He said 25 of the proposed 55 locations were now oversubscribed, "but you don't hear much about that".