Almost every town in the State is keen to attract some of the 10,000 civil and public servants and their departments which are due to be decentralised to the regions under the latest relocation programme.
Portarlington in Co Laois believes it is better placed than any other town in the provinces for a Government department. A local action committee has prepared a submission on why it believes this to be so for Finance Minister Mr McCreevy.
Frank Smith, principal of the town's St Joseph's Christian Brothers secondary school, is the action committee secretary. He feels the town's biggest asset is its infrastructure. It is serviced by trains to Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Athlone, Galway and Mayo; it is four miles from the main Dublin/Cork/Limerick road and is 45 minutes by car from the M50 in Dublin. This journey should be cut further when Kildare and Monasterevin are bypassed in 2003.
He said Portarlington, with a population of over 6,000, could also offer a young, well-educated workforce; several undeveloped sites; a full water treatment plant; good quality affordable housing; a choice of schools and supermarkets; a low crime rate; close proximity to two county hospitals; a swimming pool; and the Slieve Bloom Mountains.
Mr Smith said there were suitable sites for Government offices in the town or within walking distance of the town centre and its railway station.
"It would be hard to find another town that would have so many of the attributes needed for the relocation of civil servants and which is so accessible to Dublin and other parts of the country as well," he said.
Laois-Offaly TD Charles Flanagan said Portarlington had suffered severe job losses in recent years. There were 1,000 people signing on its live register.
"Twenty years ago, the mainstay employment in the area was at the ESB power plant or the local Bord na Mona plant, but both closed in the 1980s and their demise devastated the town. In more recent times Avon Cosmetics closed with the loss of 300 jobs. These jobs have never been replaced," he said.
He added that up to 100 people a day were commuting to work in Dublin and if the town was to remain socially viable, jobs would have to be brought to the people rather than the other way round.
"We are best placed to facilitate a smooth transfer of civil servants from Dublin. With the greatest respect to places like Cahirciveen, I'm not convinced that they are suitable because of their distance from Dublin; but in Portarlington you are out of Dublin but within striking distance of it," he said.
Mr McCreevy has sought a report on all Government departments and non-commercial State-sponsored bodies which could be relocated to the regions and it should be on his desk next month. Details of which towns will benefit from the decentralisation plan should be known by September.