The cynicism of the decentralisation proposal is breathtaking, says Vincent Browne. No planning, no logic, no strategy, no consultation, no financial evaluation. Just a crude opportunist calculation of short-term political advantage.
The movement of thousands of civil servants and their Departments to the far-flung corners of Ireland is a huge logistical operation, potentially costing massive sums of money, administrative chaos and incoherence, resulting in a possible reversal of policy in a few years after billions have been spent and thousands dislocated.
I am not saying this will happen but it could. And because it could, the decentralisation proposal demands careful appraisal in advance of a policy decision. And this is a Government that is otherwise ultra cautious, that requires study after study to be conducted, for instance, on the LUAS, the port tunnel, the reform of the health service, even the Bertie Bowl. Now it rushes headlong into a massive reorganisation of the civil service, a few months in advance of an election that is likely to be influenced by the announcement of the decision.
Obviously, there was little or no prior consultation with civil servants on the specifics of the proposal. There was no evaluation of the numbers who might voluntary relocate. There was no analysis of what additional recruitment would be required to staff decentralised Departments where an appreciable number of civil servants did not want to move. There was no estimate of the costs of acquiring new headquarters. There was no appraisal of the logistical difficulties of dispersing Departments and their senior officials.
Take one obvious example of the difficulties that may arise. Over the last several years, most of the Departments of State have been added to and subtracted from. Some have been emasculated or subsumed into other Departments, only to surface again in their own right - usually without apparent logic. Invariably, the reorganisation has come about because of some fetish of the Taoiseach of the day or some demand by a senior Minister to retain part of a portfolio.
How many times has responsibility for Arts moved in recent years? When Michael D. Higgins became Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht in 1992, a new Department was established. This was added to in 1997 when the Islands was added on. Then in 2002 this was dismantled and now Arts is linked with Sport and Tourism. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment has undergone several changes.
The Department of Health used to share a senior Minister with the Department of Social Welfare and in 1997 Children was added to it. The Department of Justice was foisted with Equality and Law Reform in 1997 and what an unlikely mismatch that is. The Department of Marine almost went out of existence in 2002 but was rescued in a mishmash of Departments, including the peripatetic Department of Communications. The Department of Transport has undergone nine name changes since it was set up. The Department of Social Welfare, as once it was, now has Social and Family Affairs added.
So what is to happen now with civil servants and Departments dispersed around the country and susceptible to being moved at the whim of a Taoiseach and/or the demand of a senior colleague? Are we to believe that no future Taoiseach will not want to reorganise the existing bizarre departmental set-up?
And what about the hapless 17 Ministers of State, whose briefs roam across several Departments. Are they to spend their days roaming the country from one departmental outpost to another or are they to stay at home where they belong?
It would make sense to freeze some sensible departmental arrangement, but that would entail arriving at a sensible arrangement in the first place. Has this even been considered?
There is an obvious need to build up centres outside Dublin to take the heat off the capital. But we have known for years that for this to be done a small number of select centres, away from Dublin's gravitational pull, have to be prioritised. This was fudged in the Spatial Strategy, now it is subverted. The obvious way to do this is to move the capital to the south or west of the country. Personally I would favour Limerick (as a native, I would, wouldn't I?) but it has obvious advantages: proximity to an international airport, a fine port, distance from Dublin and a stunning natural environment. If not there, then perhaps Galway or Waterford.
Moving the lot, lock stock and barrel - the Dáil and Senate, Government Departments and State agencies, the High Court and the Supreme Court - would take the heat off Dublin, okay. But it would take years to plan and to organise, possibly a decade.
But while moving the capital to Limerick might well save the second Fianna Fáil seat in the European Parliament and secure the two seats in Limerick West in spite of Michael Collins's unfortunate difficulties, it would do nothing for the second seat in Leinster and Connacht-Ulster and nothing at all for the local elections elsewhere.
And that's what counts.