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Decentralisation

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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 167 ✭✭uncivilservant


    Latest update from the PSEU:
    Preliminary discussions have taken place between the Department of Finance and the PAS about the procedures to be adopted in respect of staff remaining in Dublin. It is envisaged that Departments will be asked as soon as possible to carry out a survey as to the numbers and grades of such staff. They will be provided with a standard form to be issued to staff which will invite staff to express their preferences for particular organisations in Dublin. An option to express preferences for particular geographical areas in Dublin will also be available. While it is not possible at this stage of the programme to guarantee that all preferences will be available, the PAS will take full account of these stated preferences in offering Dublin vacancies to staff. Departments will be requested to report back to the PAS with the names of staff applying before the end of 2005 to allow arrangements to accommodate staff opting to remain in Dublin to be put into place as soon as possible.

    What a wonderful idea.... two years ago.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 14,670 ✭✭✭✭CJhaughey


    Parlon on RTE right now, discussing DC.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,615 ✭✭✭NewDubliner


    CJhaughey wrote:
    Parlon on RTE right now, discussing DC.
    Which program? ;-)

    RTE1: 22:15 The Mentor
    RTE2: 21:30 Screen Two: Scary Movie


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 915 ✭✭✭ArthurDent


    Which program? ;-)

    RTE1: 22:15 The Mentor
    RTE2: 21:30 Screen Two: Scary Movie


    Nah, you've missed him - on Prime Time - earlier on.

    Masterclass in avoiding answering questions.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,733 ✭✭✭pete


    ArthurDent wrote:
    Nah, you've missed him - on Prime Time - earlier on.

    Masterclass in avoiding answering questions.
    http://dynamic.rte.ie/av/2084499.smil


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 8,259 ✭✭✭RicardoSmith


    He didn't answer a single question, even when pressed repeatedly for example on progress in numbers of FAS people who showed interest in Decentralising. Asked specifically for numbers he avoid giving any. So far its 9 out of 400 who have showed an interest. He mentioned that numbers would increase through promotions etc. But thats because if you get a promotion your new contracts includes a bit about you agreeing to decentralise. If you don't agree to that, you don't get the promotion. Very underhand.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,615 ✭✭✭NewDubliner


    pete wrote:
    It was the most aggressive bit of interviewing I've seen on this issue. The delicate issue of rural businessmen buying up houses and development land so as to profiteer from the incomers was tactfully ignored in passing.

    Parlon stonewalled and deflected the hard questions. He even got away with a few distortions. I especially liked the interviewer's question "What part of SIPTU's 'NO' don't you get?".

    Pity the ICT plans are not public yet, they would have added some more 'problems & challenges'. No doubt Parlon would have said "It's not my job to negotiate these." He's only interested in dealing in property.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,028 ✭✭✭ishmael whale


    Again, the only people making the running on this are the unions. The alleged opposition are happily sitting on the fence. Why? At this stage who actually wants to see the decentralisation programme proceeded with?
    http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1491025&issue_id=13158
    Plans to decentralise civil service could cost €65m a year
    THE Government's decentralisation plans could top €65m a year, according to the Impact trade union. It has called for an independent investigation into this and says while some locations are over-subscribed with applications, the take-up among specialist staff is very low at just 15pc.
    Impact national secretary, Louise O'Donnell, called on TDs to seek an independent investigation of the cost of the programme "before taxpayers' money is wasted". She said: "The next Government waste scandal is unfolding before our eyes but it is not too late to call a halt".
    The union says that, going on certified figures which it has released, the cost of retaining the rest of the civil and public servants in Dublin will be between €50m and €65.6m a year.
    SPECIALISTS
    The Impact report, which was released in last night's Prime Time programme on RTE, says: "If decentralisation goes ahead as currently planned, the civil service will need to recruit 876 additional specialists to carry out existing functions in the new locations."
    It adds: "Our analysis also shows that, on a conservative estimate, the taxpayer will be burdened with ongoing costs of between €51.1m and €65.6m each year in respect of a similar number of technical and professional civil servants who will remain in Dublin with no obvious role."
    Impact says the 876 specialist posts include engineers, architects, probation officers, valuers and agricultural inspectors. The Impact cost analysis only covers payroll and accommodation costs of the staff concerned.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,733 ✭✭✭pete


    pete wrote:

    "an explosion of civil servants around the country"?

    I guess that'll answers the "what'll you do with them all?" question. Chilling stuff.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,028 ✭✭✭ishmael whale


    pete wrote:
    "an explosion of civil servants around the country"?

    I guess that'll answers the "what'll you do with them all?" question. Chilling stuff.
    The programme is pretty good in identifying a lot of the cost concerns, and the risk of depleting skills. The point that decentralisation doesn’t really do anything of substance for the target locations wasn’t really made, there was just a few standard thick gombeens saying “it’ll be great having a few more bodies in the Centra leaving through my overpriced copies of Car and Driver” without anyone challenging the point that this would actually give any boost to local economies. It’s a little frustrating when debate on an issue of national importance ignores basic facts from the Leaving Cert economics syllabus.

    The massive costs were underlined, and the impracticality of moving staff out of Dublin. But the question of what those massive resources might achieve if devoted to some useful purpose related to regional development could have been asked.

    My overall conclusion was Parlon can waffle on the programme because the issue is, mostly, being looked at as an IR issue. The pure uselessness of the policy is not being addressed strongly enough.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,733 ✭✭✭pete


    The programme is pretty good in identifying a lot of the cost concerns, and the risk of depleting skills.

    Unfortunately it fell into the trap of treating the majority of those affected (ie "general service" admin grades) as being one giant amorphous, interchangeable blob of humanity.

    The report implied that the loss of acquired corporate knowledge, skills and experience was only cause for concern for those in "technical" grades, and presented decentralisation as a harmless fait accompli for the rest of the plebs.

    Not so.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,028 ✭✭✭ishmael whale


    pete wrote:
    The report implied that the loss of acquired corporate knowledge, skills and experience was only cause for concern for those in "technical" grades, and presented decentralisation as a harmless fait accompli for the rest of the plebs.

    Not so.
    Indeed, you are making a necessary clarification. I take, also, that the Sunday Times article below is somewhat inaccurate in saying that 3,741 people working in Dublin have applied to move with their job. I take it what that should read is 3,741 people working in Dublin have applied to move to a regional location, but very few of these will be actually moving with their own job. The vast majority will be moving to an unfamiliar job, for which they will needed retraining.

    However, at least the article gives some coverage to the fact that the programme depends on relocating people already in regional locations to make up the numbers.

    That said, I would like to see some commentary on what the same resources could achieve if devoted to public transport, social housing and/or regional development to clarify how utterly wasteful and useless moving a few thousand people out of Dublin is as a means to “relieving congestion in the transport and housing markets and, at the same time, giving a fillip to rural areas.”

    I know I’m like a broken record, but this constant focus on the application process cloaks the utter pointlessness of the policy. Even if the programme was inundated with applications from civil servants wanting to move with their Departments, it would still make no sense to do it.
    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2091-1838762_2,00.html
    Decentralisation plans a farce, says civil service

    ALMOST half the Irish civil servants who have applied for transfers under the government’s decentralisation scheme already live in the country.

    New figures show that the controversial plan has done little to encourage civil servants working in Dublin to decamp to the country. Some 7,212 civil service jobs are being moved from the capital with a view to relieving congestion in the transport and housing markets and, at the same time, giving a fillip to rural areas.

    But, according to the latest numbers, only 3,741 people working in Dublin have applied to move with their job.

    Some 3,094 staff based in rural Ireland, however, have indicated they would like to change jobs, using the decentralisation scheme to move from one region to another. …..


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,615 ✭✭✭NewDubliner


    ... this constant focus on the application process cloaks the utter pointlessness of the policy... .
    Tom Parlon said last week that the scheme will enable 'public service reform'.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 167 ✭✭uncivilservant


    From an article in last Saturday's Westmeath Examiner.
    Minister of State Tom Parlon met with officials from IMPACT following their report. The Minister, together with officials from the Department of Finance listened to the views of the union representatives in regard to the various staffing issues, such as staff transfers, training, career opportunities and indeed the concerns of those who choose not to opt for decentralisation and remain in Dublin.

    The Minister reiterated that this Government policy will be implemented in full.

    “I can understand the concerns of the members of the union and am confident that any and all of the issues raised can be resolved through detailed discussions between the Department of Finance and Union officials. Progress has been made and is continuing on the acquisition of sites and properties and the timetable set by the Decentralisation Implementation Group can be achieved.”

    “I can understand the concerns of the members of the union..."!?!??!

    No, Tom. Apparently you can't.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,615 ✭✭✭NewDubliner


    From an article in last Saturday's Westmeath Examiner.
    Tom Parlon's version of the meeting is quite different, he leaves out all the awkward questions that might upset fans of his web site. His account was published on September 9th: http://www.tomparlon.ie/news.php?id=10


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,615 ✭✭✭NewDubliner


    Ian Campbell of Silicon Republic offers some good fair insights into the PPARS disaster at http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single5599 plus this aside about the effect of Decentralisation on ICT management:
    ....Someone somewhere in the bowels of the Government must be wondering what impact decentralisation will have on all of this, because one school of thought thinks consultants are going to have a field day. The majority of the Government's internal IT employees are reluctant to move to new locations, so no prizes for guessing who will be brought in to fill the gaps.....


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,615 ✭✭✭NewDubliner


    From 'Silicon Republic' http://www.siliconrepublic.com/

    Wishful thinking by the ICT industry for a decentralisation windfall?
    Govt to dominate IT spending in Ireland

    08.11.2005 - The Government is five times more likely to increase IT spending in 2006 than the entire rest of the Irish market, according to the annual IDC Trends and Expenditure in Ireland survey.
    This is the first time that there has been such a stark contrast between public and private sectors, according to IDC sales manager Keith Gaffney who advised an audience of vendors to allocate as much of their resources as they could to the public sector.

    The possible caveat is that the survey took place between May and June this year, prior to the fallout from the PPARS affair. Gaffney conceded that it could have some impact on the IDC predictions though experience has taught the analysts that while there is often a short-term effect when high-profile IT disasters occur, the long-term impact on spending is negligible. He did warn, however, that the Government plan to introduce ministerial sign-off around IT projects would almost certainly slow down the implementation process.

    Of the 301 interviewees taking part in the survey, 49 were from the public sector. Participants included 13 government departments, several local government departments and a single health organisation.

    Highlighting what ID described as a “bullish” attitude, 62pc of government departments said they expected it to increase their IT spend in 2006 compared to only 42pc in the private sector.

    The growth comes after something of a slowdown in 2004, which IDC attributes of a number of factors. “Decentralisation was somewhat of an inhibitor for spending people didn’t know where they were going to be and what infrastructure was required,” said Gaffney. “We think there’s now some light at the end of the tunnel as far as decentralisation is concerned. And hardware refresh will be more necessary that will further drive spending.”

    When the public sector was asked what areas of IT were most likely to receive additional investment, security came out top followed by mobile computing, wireless networking, content and document management and e-commerce.

    The survey revealed that the public sector was twice as likely to spend on these solutions in the next 12 months than the rest of the market.

    Gaffney described the projected government spends as “a massive opportunity” for Ireland’s ICT vendor community. IDC said the total IT market in Ireland was now worth €2.2bn.

    By Ian Campbell


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,139 ✭✭✭holly_johnson


    I suppose we should be grateful that us civil servants don't live in Burma....


    Burma's military rulers have begun the relocation of civil servants and central government ministries to an isolated compound near Pyinmana, hundreds of miles north of Rangoon.

    In a statement to diplomats yesterday, Kyaw Thu, deputy foreign minister, said the regime had decided to move the entire government to remote Pyinmana to help with the "formidable tasks of building a modern and developed nation throughout the whole country and, in particular, the border areas".

    The +Burmese regime selected Pyinmana, halfway between Rangoon and Mandalay and surrounded by mountains and dense forests, as a "command and control centre based at a strategic location central in the transportation and communication networks of the entire country".

    While construction of the complex has long been an open secret, few believed the move would take place.

    Government officials, many of them civilians, were reportedly devastated on Friday when relocation orders were unexpectedly issued to 10 ministries, including foreign affairs, home, commerce, health, transport, and communications.

    The first convoys of trucks with office equipment and personnel moved out of the capital at the weekend.

    Rangoon residents said civil servants were warned they would be charged with treason if they sought to avoid the move by resigning from their poorly paid jobs.

    In its statement, the foreign ministry advised diplomats: "If you need to communicate on urgent matters, you can send a fax to Pyinmana."


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,615 ✭✭✭NewDubliner


    Another gem from http://www.tomparlon.ie, Tom's claiming to be creating 390 new jobs in Birr....I thought that these were the existing jobs of people who live in Dublin....
    Press Release - 22/10/2005 - MINISTER PARLON WELCOMES POSITIVE NEWS ON FAS SITE

    Tom Parlon, T.D., Minister of State at the Department of Finance with special responsibility for the Office of Public Works today welcomed the news that FAS and RESPOND have reached agreement in principal relating to the purchase of a site for the decentralised FAS headquarters, a 5.6 acre site in Cappaneale, Birr.

    Tom Parlon, T.D., Minister of State at the Department of Finance with special responsibility for the Office of Public Works today welcomed the news that FAS and RESPOND have reached agreement in principal relating to the purchase of a site for the decentralised FAS headquarters, a 5.6 acre site in Cappaneale, Birr.

    Minister Parlon said, “At last agreement has been reached between both parties on the site layout and the deal can now be concluded. The site is being sold for €275,000 pre/acre and the difficulty was with regard to positioning in relation to the new road that is being constructed to connect Banagher and Tullamore This site will become the new Headquarters of FAS and will, no doubt, bring increased investment and vitality to the town of Birr, along with 390 new jobs. Some people have doubted the commitment of this Government to the decentralisation process but I feel this is a clear signal that the process is underway and continuing at pace”.

    “I would like to pay tribute to both FAS and Respond on their co-operation and hard work to see that this agreement was reached and also Offaly Council who were pivotal to discussions. While these negotiations, which took place over the last few months have at times, proved protracted and arduous, successful completion of this deal has always been the priority of all involved”

    “All of us who have been involved of this from the start can be proud of this agreement, the real benefit of these hard negations will be felt by the people Birr and the surrounding areas. Birr is an ideal location as the Headquaters of FAS, which has offices throughout the country. I am now looking forward to FAS pressing ahead in the construction of their new facility. I will now be calling on FAS to send an advance group of staff to Birr, where temporary offices are available in the technology centre, while the new building is being constructed ”


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 479 ✭✭samb


    Does anybody know whether they will employ more civil servants as a result?

    I don't think it would be such a bad thing, they could retrain them and stop hiring so many rip-off consultants. Don't have much hope of this with the ideology of the PD's in power


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,615 ✭✭✭NewDubliner


    samb wrote:
    Does anybody know whether they will employ more civil servants as a result?

    I don't think it would be such a bad thing, they could retrain them and stop hiring so many rip-off consultants. Don't have much hope of this with the ideology of the PD's in power
    Here's what will happen in ICT: New people will be hired to fill seats in the rural offices. The existing experienced people will be assigned to non-jobs in Dublin.

    'Consultants' (contractors) will then be hired to do the jobs the new hires will be too inexperienced to do. Work will be sub contracted to China by the consultants.

    Once the newly hired ICT staff are experienced, they'll be offered non-ICT jobs. This is common practice in the Civil Service.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,028 ✭✭✭ishmael whale


    I’ve only one quibble with this article. The lack of volunteers for decentralisation isn’t a cause for concern. It’s a cause for relief, as it’s the only thing holding this utterly wasteful scheme back.
    http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/opinion/2005/1202/40312964OPLEADECENT.html
    Decentralisation
    02/12/2005
    The number of public servants willing to relocate from Dublin under the Government's decentralisation programme is a cause for concern. The quality of public administration is under threat from this half-baked scheme and no proper cost/benefit analysis has been conducted to justify the risks. Loss of corporate knowledge and disruption of services are practically guaranteed.

    The cavalier response by the Minister of State responsible for decentralisation, Tom Parlon, is par for the course. The Government, he said yesterday, would have no difficulty in filling "early mover" posts. But filling public service posts with inexperienced officials must not become the purpose of this exercise. Improving the quality of service to consumers, securing better value for money and providing more effective administration is what the public wants.

    Just a year ago, the Government effectively acknowledged that its plans to relocate 10,000 public and civil servants out of Dublin by 2007 were unworkable. Instead, 2,000 officials would be appointed to local offices by the end of 2008. However, many of those who have applied for these positions already work in decentralised offices. An extremely poor response has been forthcoming from senior officials. Figures secured by Fine Gael show that only one in nine plans to move with their existing jobs under a programme that envisages the decentralisation of eight government departments. That is a worst-case scenario. Some officials may be prepared to transfer to a separate agency or to a different department. However, the figures emphasise continuing difficulties with this badly-planned and politically-motivated exercise. And they pose a danger to good governance by fragmentation of policy-making.

    Some €300 million has been raised through the sale of State properties to fund the programme. But while that might help to pay for new offices, the loss of experienced staff across a broad swathe of the public service could do incalculable damage to the economy. Many young public servants favour the programme since it offers an end to long commutes and promises better promotional prospects, cheaper housing and a better quality of family life. But middle and senior management, settled in Dublin and with children at university, are fiercely opposed. Among "early movers", only 7 per cent of staff at the Department of Tourism will leave Dublin for Killarney. Five members of Fás want to fill 250 jobs in Birr. And there has been no take-up whatsoever from Fáilte Ireland and Bord Iascaigh Mhara for positions in Killarney and Clonakilty. The Government should revise its plans.

    © The Irish Times


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,440 ✭✭✭Dinarius


    Ishmael,

    Who wrote that?

    Thanks.

    D.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,028 ✭✭✭ishmael whale


    Dinarius wrote:
    Ishmael,

    Who wrote that?

    Thanks.

    D.
    Don't know - its their editorial.


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 32,286 Mod ✭✭✭✭The_Conductor


    With the Department of Agriculture still on the list for an early move to Portlaoise, and the Houses of the Oireachtas clambering to take over the Department of Agriculture HQ on Kildare Street - personnel officers and the Department of Finance have been desperately seeking new avenues of finding alternate meaningful employment for the soon to be surplus staff.

    A once in a life-time offer has issued to Dublin based staff (at up to EO level) offering them the chance to transfer to the Department of Transport and become Driving Testers. (Its only open to staff up to EO level as the max of the tester salary scale is below the max of the Executive Officer salary scale).

    Apart from the usual rules and requirements that apply to joining the civil service (lack of criminal conviction etc) the only qualification that is required is to have a full clean European driving licence (and preferably a reasonable knowledge of the rules of the road). Applicants must be available to attend a 6 week training course starting in early February and be willing to transfer Departments immediately. The posts of Driving Tester are located throughout the country, there is no guarantee that a position will be offered to any candidate in their chosen location.

    Applicants are requested to reply urgently to (named), Personnel Officer.

    Does a full clean driving licence mean no endorsements, or no penalty points? Sounds like a possibility- but not for me, no thanks..... I'm still trembling at the thought of the terror teaching my sister to drive was......


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,124 ✭✭✭eigrod


    smccarrick wrote:
    A once in a life-time offer has issued to Dublin based staff (at up to EO level) offering them the chance to transfer to the Department of Transport and become Driving Testers. (Its only open to staff up to EO level as the max of the tester salary scale is below the max of the Executive Officer salary scale).

    What half-wit came up with that idea ?

    Can we all submit ideas of what to do with the Dublin surplus ? Perhaps to start us off :
    • become a roadsweeper between the hours of midnight and 6am ?
    • Join up as an army reservist ?
    • wheel oiler for the trollies in the A&E departments ?
    • ASBO enforcer ?

    As Mr. Parlon becomes more desperate, this project becomes more frightening.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,028 ✭✭✭ishmael whale


    Is there actually anyone left who thinks the proposed decentralisation programme is worth pursuing?
    http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1520150&issue_id=13371&printer=1
    Two years on: Government's €3bn decentralisation is going nowhere. Some state agencies and government departments could grind to a halt under plans for decentralisation, confidential documents reveal. ….Internal Fas memos show the agency is seriously concerned about losing its top staff if it moves to Birr, Co Offaly. In the Department of Foreign Affairs, where senior diplomats with Development Co-operation Ireland (DCI) have refused to move to Limerick, documents show grave concern about its ability to operate if it loses experienced development aid specialists. The problems facing the two bodies are mirrored in almost all other specialist units.

    Labour's finance spokesperson Joan Burton, who obtained the documents under the Freedom of Information Act, last night called on the Government to scrap its entire decentralisation plans and go back to the drawing board. "Decentralisation can work and it does work, but this was a political stroke and it was never costed or thought out," she said. "The eventual cost to the taxpayer will be €2bn to €3bn, money that could be better spent on health, education and front line services that people desperately need," she said. ….

    http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1520272&issue_id=13371&printer=1
    …. The problems in FAS represent in microcosm the massive difficulties facing the whole decentralisation scheme. In letters obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, FAS management have warned of a "brain drain" of quality staff if they are forced to move. FAS director general Roddy Molloy says they could replace staff by taking civil servants from other departments but this would lead to "mismatch between those available to work in Birr and those needed". ….

    Notes of internal soundings of staff show they are at best lukewarm and at worst openly hostile to the move. The notes say staff expressed concern that the agency's own decentralisation plan ignored the needs of those that do not wish to locate. A 'them and us' approach is evident, they say, adding that the move is both discriminatory to Dublin people and anti-family. ….

    http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=1520192&issue_id=13371&printer=1
    …. Seven senior diplomats at counsellor grade are required to run the Development Co-operation Ireland unit. Six senior officials from other departments have applied to go to Limerick but the department has been reluctant to take them. The unit, which controls a budget of more than €500m annually, works with NGOs and co-ordinates aid on behalf of the Irish Government. In a letter to the Department of Finance's decentralisation implementation group dated October 12, officials spelled out in clear terms the problems the department is facing. It warned that the unit could lose as much as 86pc of its existing staff if the transfer to Limerick was to go ahead. "The loss of senior management and corporate memory will have an adverse impact in the short term," the letter says.

    …Other documents suggest the physical distance from Dublin will create difficulties in dealing with foreign government embassies, NGOs and other aid agencies. The documents stress it will be necessary to keep a 'liaison office' in the capital. … Diplomats spend over half their careers abroad on foreign postings, and flexibility in moving around is part of their job. Internal memos have highlighted this as a major problem in recruiting senior staff from other departments, as those staff would not have such flexible work arrangements.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 143 ✭✭delboy159


    "Is there actually anyone left who thinks the proposed decentralisation programme is worth pursuing?"

    Probably the 3,300 Civil Servants based in Dublin who have been treated as if their lives are stitches in the political football that decentralisation has become.

    What about the spouses of these people who are equally as excited about the opportunity, and who also feel as hopeless and doubtfull about the whole process because of the negativity and political messing that has occured .

    The 11,000 people who applied for the Executive Officer exams recently - using a new regionalised recruitment process - which could give thousands of people "not in the Civil Service", but who would be delighted to have a permanent pensionable job close to their home. I don't know how many of the 11,000 applied for outside Dublin (I have no doubt its over 5,000 and close to 8,000 or 9,000) - thats a lot of people that want decentralisation to happen.

    I agree that specialised posts (professionals, diplomats etc) should not be decentralised, due to the fact the short term negative effects are so major they outweigh any long term benefits.
    However, decentralistion of general grades and the majority of the "general service" has many business and social and cultural benefits for the Departments, Dublin and the Rural areas that are receiving them.

    People tend to ignore this, and focus on any negative aspects they can.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 624 ✭✭✭Aidan1


    I agree that specialised posts (professionals, diplomats etc) should not be decentralised

    All civil servants are professionals, and the vast majority work in specialised positions, of one form or other. Some 'back office' type work can easily be decentralised, but not whole Depts, which is one of the main problems with this 'plan'.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,615 ✭✭✭NewDubliner


    Aidan1 wrote:
    Some 'back office' type work can easily be decentralised,
    Such as IT? That has very low takeup.
    Is there actually anyone left who thinks the proposed decentralisation programme is worth pursuing?
    The Sunday Business Post donated major column inches to Tom Parlon's spin doctor: http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqid=10185-qqqx=1.asp
    delboy159 wrote:
    People tend to ignore this, and focus on any negative aspects they can.
    Just because some people might benefit does not make it right to waste billions of taxpayer's money.


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