Madam, - In his column of June 10th Martin Mansergh continues the efforts by FF/PD spokespersons to obscure the real nature of the Government's decentralisation plan. The plan itself was hastily conceived in the in the run-up to local elections and inappropriately announced without consultation during a Budget speech.
It has very little to do with balanced development and coincides to a remarkably small extent with the National Spatial Strategy. It is not true decentralisation in that it does not devolve additional authority to lower levels of government or to regions.
Sub-offices of various departments have been successfully relocated throughout the country. But removing senior policy-making echelons of Departments of State to locations distant from the seat of government is unprecedented. The prefectures in France, in which Senator Mansergh informs us many high-flying French civil servants spend some time, have powers devolved from central government on a scale unknown to regional or local authorities in our very centralised State.
Senator Mansergh asks why the Department of Defence and Army headquarters shouldn't be situated close together. At the moment they are in the same building in Dublin: under the decentralisation programme a new building will be constructed for the Department in Newbridge and another new building will accommodate Army Headquarters 10km away in the Curragh.
Perhaps Senator Mansergh could make better use of the platform he enjoys in your paper by treating the subject of decentralisation in a more analytical and serious manner rather than defending what is a shallow political gimmick that could yet cost this State dear in terms of relocation expenses and a less effective public service. If the programme is implemented in its present crude state it will also reduce the possibility of bringing about genuine decentralisation that would involve devolving appropriate powers away from central government to regional and local authorities.
Senator Mansergh is right when he asserts that balanced development throughout the country cannot be steered solely by public authorities. But let's have a decentralisation programme that empowers citizens to facilitate progress in their own areas rather than one which is driven by partisan political considerations. - Yours, etc,
JOE AHERN, Hermitage Close, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.
