Group proposes radical changes

Flynn reports: The Government has accepted proposals for a radical reduction in the immediate scope of the controversial decentralisation initiative.

The commitment to move 10,300 Dublin-based civil and public servants to 53 new locations by 2007 has been dropped, with only 3,492 officials included in the first phase of the initiative which ends in 2008.

The Government said the move of some 2,200 additional civil and public service posts would be "prioritised" in the coming months, although it gave no specific commitment about when the jobs will move.

Some 4,700 other positions which featured in the Budget package last year did not feature in the latest reports by the implementation committee chaired by Mr Phil Flynn.

However, Department of Finance officials insisted that the Government remained committed to moving these jobs and said they will feature in a separate report by the Flynn group expected in spring 2005.

Most of the positions in the first phase of the programme are in Government Departments (rather than State agencies) while most of those on the priority list, which does not include a timetable, are in State agencies.

Some 13 Departments and State bodies will move to 15 locations in the first phase.

The locations are: Clonakilty, Drogheda, Killarney, Kilrush, Listowel, Newcastle West, Limerick, Longford, Loughrea, Newbridge, Portlaoise, Sligo, Trim, and Tullamore. The organisations moving to these towns must submit their plans by next February.

Another four bodies, which will move to five other locations, must submit their plans by the end of March. The locations for such moves are: Athlone, Carlow, Carrick-on-Shannon, Knock Airport, Mullingar and Wexford.

The implementation committee said in its latest report to the Government that a "big bang" approach with all organisations moving at the same time was neither desirable nor feasible.

Its proposal for a phased roll-out was accepted by the Cabinet at its meeting on Tuesday. While the Government's stated objective was to move officials from Dublin, the committee's report said that "many" officials who wanted to take part in the project were already working outside the city.

The Flynn group said the overall project would break-even in 2026 after an "increasingly negative" cash-flow in 2006-2010 as the Government pays for site acquisition, construction work and any penalties for exiting office leases in Dublin.

The Minister for Finance, Mr Cowen, said he will deal with the capital costs of procuring new office accommodation in the Budget next week.

The Flynn group also said the Government should pay for construction work and dropped a proposal to seek upfront funding for construction from the private sector in the form of public-private-partnerships.

A separate report, by the Deloitte consulting firm, said it was not possible to quantify the cost of decentralisation due to uncertainty about the number of officials who will take part in the project.

The "priority" list for the next phase of the initiative includes more than 700 jobs in State agencies, 500 positions in the Garda Síochána and Defence Forces and almost 1,000 posts in the IT area.

The Flynn group said a "more individualised" approach should be adopted for State agencies.

The agencies earmarked for priority are expected to move to: Birr, Clonakilty, Drogheda, Dundalk, Loughrea, Portarlington and Thomastown.