A mellow reflection on decentralisation

ishmael whale

The more you think about it the more it occurs that the government’s proposed decentralisation is based on an essentially fallacy that people generally prefer living in the regions to living in Dublin. While some do, the actual revealed preference of most people when given the choice seems to be to live in the capital.

I take it we’ll have to wait until after the local election before we seen any common sense emerging from Government on this issue.

Irish Examiner
16/03/04
SIPTU add to McCreevy's woes
By Fionnán Sheahan, Political Correspondent
CHARLIE McCREEVY'S decentralisation plans hit a further snag yesterday as another public sector union said the overwhelming majority of its members don't want to move from Dublin.

According to SIPTU, 95% of the workers it represents in State agencies are not interested in going along with the Minister for Finance's controversial decentralisation programme. SIPTU represents half of the 2,500 employees in State agencies and the reluctance to move in this sector follows a similar pattern in the broader public service.

Government departments have identified less than 2,000 civil servants willing to move under the landmark policy decision which requires more than 10,000 staff to relocate to 53 locations in 25 counties.

Civil service unions are vehemently opposed to decentralisation and their stance is backed by the official count revealing that just 1,938 workers in seven Government departments want to move.

SIPTU State and related agencies branch secretary Owen Reidy said the results of his union's research, showing just one in 20 of its members want to move, illustrates the deep scepticism over Mr McCreevy's decentralisation plan.

"As many of the State agencies in question are already regionalised, the logic behind the Government's plan has to be seriously questioned.

"Because State agencies have specific remits, and their employees have particular skills, a major redeployment within the sector could lead to a reduction in the delivery of service and a loss of collective accumulated experience.

"This would not deliver value for money to the public, nor be beneficial to the employees," he said. Pointing out that Department of Finance officials are in talks with the public service unions, Mr McCreevy's spokesman said the next meeting with the ICTU group of unions will take place next week.

"We will of course discuss any issue of concern to the unions and their members. As SIPTU also acknowledged, the decentralisation programme is entirely voluntary and those staff who do not wish to relocate will not be required to do so," the spokesman said. SIPTU is planning to hold a meeting of members affected by decentralisation to decide on a clear response to the Government's plan and the union has already started negotiations on the move with the Department of Finance.

The union says it will insist that current agreements and accepted procedures concerning promotions and renewal of contracts in the State agencies are strictly followed.

bonkey

Originally posted by ishmael whale
The more you think about it the more it occurs that the government’s proposed decentralisation is based on an essentially fallacy that people generally prefer living in the regions to living in Dublin. While some do, the actual revealed preference of most people when given the choice seems to be to live in the capital.

I'm not sure how the article you post shows that at all.

It shows very clearly that those who live in Dublin already are - to a large extent - not looking to leave the city.

If the study was national (which it may have been - its unclear from the article), it would show (somewhat less clearly, admittedly) that people do not want to move from where they are established. In such a case, given relative populations, that would show that the majority of people do prefer living outside Dublin, because thats where the majority of people live today.

I take it we’ll have to wait until after the local election before we seen any common sense emerging from Government on this issue.

I doubt even that will manage it. The government is comitted to decentralisation, and regardless of how braindead this implementation is, they won't dump it for fear of sending the wrong signal.

jc

ishmael whale

To refine that still mellow moment, indeed its true that, taking it as it is, all the surveys by SIPTU and the other unions basically show is that people who live in Dublin are not generally looking to leave the city. This is at variance with the conventional wisdom underlying the Government’s proposal, which suggests that Dublin is a place people want to escape from.

It is also true that its difficult to envisage how a comparable survey of opinion could be conducted in a regional location as the question would have to be something like:

“a) If you are a homeowner and the Government undertook to give you a job that pays the same and if you could sell your existing house, buy a much larger one and still have a tidy sum left over or

b) If you are not a homeowner and the Government undertook to give you a job that pays the same but with access to much cheaper housing

And Dublin was the location of that larger/cheaper housing, would you move?”

The survey is consistent with what property prices already tell us. Dublin is a popular location that many people find attractive and want to live in. There is no pressing need for Government to combust large amounts of money shifting people out of it.

As to how it will end, it can only be in tears. Unless someone blinks we seem to end up with 8,000 civil servants staying in Dublin while offices and desks sit vacant around the country waiting for them.

cyclopath2001

"“a) If you are a homeowner and the Government undertook to give you a job that pays the same and if you could sell your existing house, buy a much larger one and still have a tidy sum left over"

This paraphrases part of Govt's rationale why people might leave Dublin. But it's anecdotal not based on any research.

For example, if a public servant is living in Rathoath, working in Dublin City & his/her job is moved to Athy, the difference in value after stamp duty and other costs may be negative.

bonkey

Originally posted by ishmael whale
which suggests that Dublin is a place people want to escape from.

Does it? (genuine non-rhetorical question).

I always understood decentralisation to be about stemming the flow into the city, of people who may not wish to move there but have no choice because of the job market location.....not about helping those masses who allegedly want to move out (whom, as the survey shows, seem to be far fewer in number than one would presume).

Yes, it seems counter-intuitive to achieve this by moving a ton of people out of the city, but if you follow the thinking through, the concept is supposed to create jobs in these decentralisation target-areas, both directly and peripherally, which makes the location more capable of resisting depopulation over the coming years/decades.

AS I said...the current implementation will almost definitely not do that...but I always understood that to be the notional idea.

Also, not having seen the survey questions, I would wonder how many people want to stay in Dublin, and how many just don't want to move to where the current proposals are targetting.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong with these places, but as an example....when I worked in AIB, there was a significant waiting list of people who were working for the bank in Dublin, who wanted to move "back down the country". I don't recall how significant, exactly, so I'm not going to go guessing numbers.

However, what was more significant was that the vast majority of the people whom I knew who were on that list were not interested in moving "back down the country", but only in moving "back to my home town, or within 30 minutes drive of it".

So...ask someone if they'd be willing to relocate to (say) Cavan, and you might be told "bog off...I'll stay in Dublin, thanks". Ask someone if they would like to move "back home", and you may get a different answer.

Anyway...I shoudl go back to work now. Damn foreign countries not celebrating the only National Holiday worth talking about

jc

ishmael whale

Indeed the main stated intention of the decentralisation is to bring development to the regions. However, there has been rhetoric to the effect that people, given the choice, should willingly move out of Dublin. This is partly reflected in the decision not to pay removal expenses (as in why would you pay expenses to someone for allegedly moving to a location that better suits). I’ve gone looking for some examples, this statement by McCreevy on Monday, 9th February, 2004 is the best I can come up with.

http://home.eircom.net/content/irelandcom/topstories/2502526?view=Eircomnet
“There are thousands of public servants commuting daily to Dublin, some from the immediately neighbouring counties of Wicklow, Kildare and Meath, but many others from even further away. This programme offers these people the prospect of a significantly improved quality of life by providing work much closer to home. For many others, there is the opportunity to start a new life outside the capital.
Those who doubt that there will be sufficient interest in this option often refer to previous difficulties in attracting sufficient numbers to particular locations. My view is that the single biggest impediment to encouraging sufficient numbers to relocate has been the lack of prospects for career development. This impediment has now been removed.”

There have been other contributions which stress the opportunity for staff to escape traffic congestion. Bertie has made a comment to the effect that civil servants should welcome the chance to sell their homes in Dublin and buy ‘mansions’ in the countryside.

It might be possible that a different programme would have a better chance of voluntary takeup. But there might be a gap in expectations between what the staff would expect and what Government would intend. I have the feeling that staff interpret the idea of moving out of the centre to facilitate commuting as meaning something like moving the headquarters of the Prisons Service to Clondalkin, or the Passport Office to Balbriggan - two moves which seemed to happen without any controversy or any shortage of volunteers.

Moving offices to the Dublin suburbs and immediately adjacent towns like Bray, Maynooth and Balbriggan might genuinely relieve commuting stress and even open the possibility that some people could to walk to work. But unfortunately the main objective of the proposed programme seems to be simply to have something to announce in every county.