The great decentralisation debacle

Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin on Wednesday raised in the Dáil during leaders' question time the supposedly voluntary scheme of decentralisation as proposed by Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy last December. He exposed Fianna Fáil for trying to claim a success by proudly proclaiming 'Delivering for the regions' in their local government manifesto.

Ó Caoláin had to make do with the Defence Minister Michael Smith, as the Taoiseach was 'on a tour of European countries' He said that the reality about the decentralisation plan was that it had been "ill-conceived, ill-thought out and ill-planned", adding that 10,000 posts were planned for decentralisation without any consultation whatsoever, yet Fianna Fáil were still describing it as a voluntary scheme.

Ó Caoláin informed the House that, since the Budget last December — when these grand plans for decentralisation were announced — 95% of SIPTU members surveyed said they did not wish to leave Dublin. Only 69 out of 503 respondents were interested in taking up the proposed 250 positions in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment in Carlow and the programme was effectively impossible to implement, he said.

Citing the government's plans to move the Combat Poverty Agency to his home town of Monaghan, he stated that there was absolutely no prospect of CPA being moved to Monaghan as only 500 of the 2,500 workers were willing to move.

He further pointed out problems within the IT and Health sectors, where there is huge concern at the decentralisation plan, especially given that they were not even informed of where they were to relocate to. Minister McCreevy, he pointed out, had promised a report to the government by March yet where was this report?

Minister Smith blithely told Ó Caoláin that he should be happy about the decentralisation of the CPA to Monaghan because of the 'massive economic boom' but failed to address Ó Caoláin's claim that it was a typical Fianna Fáil pre-election promise.

"This programme will proceed whether the Opposition like it or not," he said.

This is obviously what Fianna Fáil considers 'voluntary'. Decentralisation can only be implemented in a planned way and with the full cooperation of the workforce. This government, in its rush to dangle carrots before an increasingly sceptical electorate, has done neither of those things.