A LEADING academic has denounced decentralisation as a failed strategy which has undermined the institutional fabric of the state and become a charter for mileage claims, writes Anita Guidera. Professor Brigid Laffin, principal of the college of humanities at UCD, told the MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co Donegal, yesterday that failures of accountability went beyond unethical behaviour to the performance of public institutions and those holding positions of responsibility. Citing the example of the 2003 decentralisation project, she said there was not a single developed country in the world that would have treated its public institutions the way they were treated in the decentralisation process.
Meanwhile ESRI economist John Fitzgerald strongly criticised the Government’s decentralisation programme as a “disaster”. He said it was causing chaos in the public sector. “People who know about it cannot speak about it because they are public servants,” he said. “They tried this in Burma and sent all the civil servants out into the jungle. And look at Burma. It cannot work where people are split up and sent around the country.” He said one British observer he spoke to over the summer had said overseas development aid had been “messed up” by transferring staff to Limerick. Mr Fitzgerald said staff dealing with climate change policy in the Department of Environment had “jumped ship” rather than be transferred to Wexford and replacement staff in this area were now retiring early.
Riskymove wrote: » we are all aware of the issues which have been there from the start but people's lives have been messed around enough. In this case the building has been built and there are 150 people who want to move to it, many of whom have been commuting to Dublin from the regions for a few years now while family are elsewhere waiting. Those sort of situations should be completed.
NewDubliner wrote: » What happens if the department is abolished or part of a function is transferred to another department? Centralised staffing resources are much more flexible. The project was intended as a subsidy for non-economically-viable towns in consituencies loyal to FF. We can't afford that kind of thing any more.
Riskymove wrote: » I am very familiar with an organisation which now has about 100 people in a location as advanced staff, another 150 in dublin (at least half who have come to dublin and want to go) ready to move and the new building is almost complete.
smccarrick wrote: » Phased relocation? Ireland had a series of decentralisation programmes- going all the way back to the 1960s. There was only ever a small proportion of the civil service actually based in Dublin- this is something the media have consistently failed to acknowledge. The reason so many of the successful decentralisations were simply people moving from one already decentralised location to another- is that the civil service was already pretty well decentralised to begin with........ What do you mean by 'phased relocation'? Allowing civilservants move elsewhere in other regional locations- from posts that are already decentralised? At least calling it a 'Phased Relocation' would be honest- you can't decentralise something thats already decentralised after all........
NewDubliner wrote: » Even where the departments/agencies in question might be abolished by Bord Snip? You want to move people there, then close the office and move/redeploy them again?
Riskymove wrote: » obviously in cases where buildings are built/bought and people are in place, we might as well finish that move
Riskymove wrote: » there are still many moves planned that we all know wont happen or wont happen for a long time yet Departments have to operate on the basis that they are (people have to sign up to move to work there etc) which is pointless.
Riskymove wrote: » Moves still in the future should be cancelled and we can return to phased relocation like we had before as appropriate
smccarrick wrote: » What about all the buildings that have been contracted out- the buildings in Dublin that were sold, the vacant properties around Dublin- and around the country?
Riskymove wrote: » It should be scrapped at this point, why wait and leave the uncertainty?
gurramok wrote: » I had thought that decentralisation was a move away from Dublin thing.
NewDubliner wrote: » I can well understand moving the jobs to Portlaoise, it's in Cowen's consituency. As MoF, didn't he move large chunks of Finance to Tuallmore? But, don't we need extra dole clerks in Dublin?
smccarrick wrote: » You already have war- look at the Department of Agriculture staff in Galway and Ballinasloe whose jobs were 'decentralised' to Portlaoise......? (I'm not even going to mention Carrick-on-Shannon and the Longford debacle.......)
NewDubliner wrote: » Call for reversal of decentralisation I can see problems ahead, implementing Bord Snip, if if turns out that some towns will lose their 'decentalisation' trophy offices. The lobbying will be fierce. As usual, Dublin workers will probably take the hit, to protect jobs in marginal rural constituencies. The 'decentralisation' project was, in part, inspired by building interests, anxious to cash in on thousands of house moves and hundreds of new office developments. It's a fine example of the way the government squandered the boom.
From the Irish Times Online: Professor John Fitzgerald of the Economic and Social Research Institute has called for a complete reversal of the Government’s decentralisation policy. Mr Fitzgerald described the policy as a “disaster” which would ultimately make the public sector much less efficient. Speaking to RTÉ radio today, Mr Fitzgerald said: “When you are dealing with Government offices which are outside of Dublin it takes much longer to get responses to get action. “We’ve acknowledged that we have had a disaster in banking...lets acknowledge this. Reverse it and try and build a productive efficient public service out of this mess." Mr Fitzgerald said that while a lot of the public service actually “works well”, in the future it will have to work “better than ever” with less resources. “It’s a question of saving money in the long run,” he added
pete wrote: » Who said anything about moving to get a new job? Jobs are being moved with no regard for the service, skills or wishes of the current jobholder.
NewDubliner wrote: » Given the unemployment situation in Dublin, how will FF justify paying people from outside Dublin to come and take the work of Dubliners?
Rural staff paid €1m travel costs Civil servants travelling to the Republic capital for training received up to €12,000 compensation each Colin Coyle The government has spent more than €1m compensating 270 rural civil servants for travelling to Dublin to train before being decentralised. ...As decentralisation was not limited to civil servants working in the capital — staff already living in rural areas have been able to move to departments based in other parts of the country. First they had to be retrained in Dublin. ... Decentralisation was originally designed to move civil servants out of the capital, but about half of the 10,000 who signed up for the scheme worked outside the capital.... The number of staff requesting a move from one rural area to another has added to difficulties with the programme. The government has spent almost €250m moving 2,500 civil servants out of Dublin, with moves for 5,000 more deferred. About 3,500 employees are currently being decentralised.
Firetrap wrote: » Problem is that no party has the guts to turn around and cancel the whole thing for fear of upsetting voters in the towns pinpointed for decentralisation.
ixoy wrote: » What an utter shambles that benefited so few people.
5,000 public servants stay put as decentralisation is unlikely STEPHEN COLLINS LATEST OFFICIAL figures show that plans to decentralise over 5,000 public servants have been deferred, while just 2,500 people have moved under the plan announced in 2003. The figures from the Department of Finance show that another 3,500 public servants are still in the process of being decentralised but have not yet been moved. Plans to move 5,140 people to 50 locations were deferred in the Budget and it is now widely accepted that the moves will never take place. .....more
