The Government has put on hold a deal it struck with Teagasc to move out of Dublin, fearing it would be exposed to millions of euro in compensation in order to carry out its wider decentralisation plan, writes Seán MacConnell, Agriculture Correspondent.
Teagasc staff had reached a preliminary agreement with the Department of Finance for an average one-off compensatory payment of €6,000 for those who opted to relocate to Oakpark, Co Carlow, and Athenry, Co Galway.
The deal, agreed by Government before its own decentralisation announcement in December, also included a generous severance package for staff who wished to retire or leave.
However, a Teagasc board meeting earlier this week was told that it could not proceed with consideration of the package as a freeze had been put on the move due to the Government's own decentralisation plans.
Teagasc, the agriculture and food development authority, had decided early last year to sell its Sandymount headquarters in Dublin and relocate the 100 staff there to Oakpark and Athenry.
Union sources expressed outrage at the news which would upset the agreement, which, they said, was totally self-financing from a restructuring plan.
"The move to Oakpark was decided early last year, long before Mr McCreevy made his move and we negotiated in good faith on behalf of our members," one senior union activist said.
"Unlike the Government move, our relocation was forced on us because of financial considerations so we consider it very unfair that the Department of Finance should now come along and put a complete roadblock in front of us," he said.
"What was agreed between us and the Department of Agriculture and Finance was not without precedent, because we had similar situations before," he said.
A Teagasc board member said he was very concerned that the action of the Government in not allowing Teagasc to proceed with its own plan put in serious doubt the planned move to Oakpark and Athenry.
"The first inkling we had that something had come undone was when the Office of Public Works advertisements included Teagasc in its own plan seeking accommodation for the headquarters," he said.
"Teagasc has its own buildings in the research centre in Oakpark and did not require accommodation so it was puzzling when we were included," he said. "When we were told that the package for the staff was now off the table it was apparent that our own relocation plans are up the creek," he said.
A spokesman for the Department of Finance said last night that neither of the Teagasc schemes had been expressly pulled. "A decision is expected shortly," he said.
When this was put to Teagasc last night, a spokesman said it would appear that the organisation was "inadvertently" included in the Government's decentralisation announcement."Efforts are now being made to have the issues clarified and doubts removed as quickly as possible," he said.