Committee to examine proposals to decentralise

The process used to select where 10,300 civil servants are to be transferred from Dublin will be examined by a new committee of civil service staff representatives and senior officials from the Department of Finance.

The new committee, which was agreed at a meeting between unions and management yesterday, will examine "all aspects of the proposed decentralisation programme".

All five major civil service unions are to be represented on the committee, which is to have its first meeting before Christmas.

According to the unions, yesterday's meeting also agreed that the new committee should seek more information on grades of staff, and information on how the disruption would be handled.

It will also evaluate the efficiency of such a move and discuss the prospects for those who remain in Dublin.

The committee has requested what advice or evaluation the heads of departments have offered to the Government on the decentralisation proposals.

Union representatives met early yesterday to discuss the main issues relating to staff concerns. They later met officials from the Department, at which they put forward staff concerns - both in relation to those who move and those who do not.

Significant concern was expressed for staff members above 40 years of age whose family ties through children or parents to the Dublin region were significant.

However, the availability of universities in the regions, a significant factor in previous decentralisation negotiations, was not a major issue yesterday.

According to Mr Sean O'Riordan, general secretary of the Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants (AHCPS), the unions are not opposed to decentralisation and are not making any claims about the move.

Mr O'Riordan said the issue was now one of information gathering.

Although one of the key demands was to see the criteria used to select the deployment locations, Mr O'Riordan said that was not to imply there were political motives behind them.

"All we are saying is that asking people to transfer is a significant undertaking and they are entitled to see the criteria by which they are being asked to go to a specific location," he told The Irish Times.

Mr O'Riordan said the civil service has an obligation to the public to discharge its business efficiently but also to Government and the Oireachtas, which were based in Dublin, as well as to Brussels. How this was to be achieved through regional deployment had given rise to a valid desire for explanations, he said.

Mr O'Riordan said it was not unreasonable to expect that incentives should be used as part of the scheme to encourage people to transfer.

The civil servants have also asked for a survey of staff concerns and wishes, promised by Government when the current tranch of decentralisation was first mooted, to be carried out if the move was to proceed "in a spirit of partnership".