Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants annual conference: Senior civil servants and at least one Cabinet Minister had major concerns about decentralisation when the Government first proposed a large-scale relocation programme four years ago, newly-released documents have revealed.
They show the secretaries general of several Departments now to be decentralised were firmly opposed to the idea.
The documents were released to the Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants under the Freedom of Information Act. The union's general secretary, Mr Seán Ó Riordáin, outlined their contents at its annual conference in Dublin on Saturday.
In a letter to the Department of Finance in June 2000, the secretary general of the then Department of Tourism and Sport, Ms Margaret Hayes, said the Minister (Mr McDaid) had considered the case for relocating the Department outside Dublin.
"However, in view of its strong policy-making content and direct supportive role for the Minister, Government and Parliament, he does not believe that the Department is suitable for decentralisation," she said.
In the decentralisation programme announced in December, the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism is to have its headquarters relocated to Killarney, Co Kerry, the home county of the present Minister, Mr O'Donoghue. Mr McDaid was canvassing in Co Donegal yesterday and was not available to comment.
More detailed concerns were outlined by the top civil servants of other Departments.
In a letter to the Department of Finance in November 2000, the secretary general of the then Department of Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Tom Carroll, said relocation would pose major management difficulties.
"It is my considered professional judgement that any effort to relocate this Department's functions on a large scale would seriously destabilise our present organisation and capabilities which it has taken management here over ten years to bring up to its present level," he wrote.
"Major difficulties", he said - with the word "major" in bold and underlined - had arisen in relation to the already-decentralised Marine Institute. "These difficulties mirror/highlight in many ways what would happen if a decision was taken to relocate the whole Department of the Marine and Natural Resources and/or BIM." The Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources is to be relocated to Cavan under the plan announced in December.
Also to be moved, to Wexford, is the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. Its then secretary general, Mr Jimmy Farrelly, told the Department of Finance, in a letter of June 2000, that there would be "very serious detrimental consequences" if posts related to high-level policy work and specialist advice were to be decentralised.
If the Department did have to move, a location near Dublin would be "essential" if key staff were to be retained, he said.
"The worst scenario would be to relocate staff to an entirely new location which was not near Dublin, resulting in the disadvantages of loss of staff and increased fragmentation without the advantages of building up the critical mass and management structures in Ballina and Shannon." The Department already has offices there.
Mr Farrelly said locating staff away from where they would have ready access to the Oireachtas would cause serious practical difficulties. It prompted him to ask whether some consideration should be given to moving the Oireachtas itself.
Addressing the conference on Saturday, Dr Edward Walsh, president emeritus of the University of Limerick, also raised the possibility of moving the administrative capital from Dublin.
Dr Walsh said it was not an option he favoured, but if the Government planned to move eight of 15 Departments, "Why not move all of them?"