The Minister for Finance, Mr Charlie McCreevy today (8 July) announced the locations for the decentralised Health Sector and ICT jobs, as part of the public service decentralisation programme.

Mr McCreevy also welcomed details of the preliminary results which were released today from the Central Applications Facility (CAF).

Health sector
The headquarters of the new Health Service Executive (involving the decentralisation of up to 300 jobs) will be in Naas and the headquarters of the new Health Information & Quality Authority (involving the decentralisation of 50 jobs) will be in Cork City. These two organisations are due to be established on a statutory basis by 1 January 2005.

ICT jobs
The 870 ICT jobs will be located in

Portlaoise: 125 Agriculture staff;

Drogheda: 225 Social & Family Affairs staff, 90 Local Government
Computer Services Board staff and 15 Reach staff; and

Kildare town: 380 Revenue staff and 35 Department of Finance (CMOD)
staff.

The Minister said he would be asking other Government departments and all small and medium-sized public bodies to consider the extent of usage they could make of the ICT staff centres and the associated data centres which will house the ICT equipment.

Central Applications Facility
The Minister also welcomed the preliminary results which were released today from the Central Applications Facility (CAF).

Civil Service
The CAF included about 6,300 civil service posts which are due to move as part of the overall programme. At this early stage nearly 2,200 civil servants working in Dublin have expressed an interest in moving to the new decentralised locations, while a further 400 Dublin-based civil servants are interested in moving to existing provincial locations.

In addition, there are another 2,200 approx. civil servants working outside Dublin who have expressed an interest in moving to the new decentralised locations, while a further 500 are interested in moving to a different provincial location.

State agencies
The CAF included about 2,200 State agency posts which are due to move as part of the overall programme. The initial indications are that 330 Dublin-based employees of State agencies have expressed an interest in moving – 290 to the new decentralised locations and 40 to existing provincial locations. In addition, nearly 200 State agency employees working outside Dublin are interested in moving – 170 to the new decentralised locations and 30 to a different provincial location.

Commenting on the preliminary results, Mr McCreevy said “the Implementation Group chaired by Phil Flynn is due to submit a further report to me later this month and will, no doubt, be taking account of this information in developing the next phase of the implementation plan. For my part, I am pleased with these preliminary results and I regard this as a very encouraging start to a programme which is still in its infancy. The preliminary results represent a good base from which to move forward with the implementation of the decentralisation programme.”

The Minister acknowledged that the early results for the State agencies were disappointing. “These initial results may have been influenced by a number of factors including the size and nature of the individual organisations and the decision of some trade unions to advise their members in the State agencies not to co-operate with the CAF. However, we are still at a very early stage in the process and I hope it will be possible to address the issues raised by the unions in the near future.” said the Minister.

Accommodation
The Minister also said that considerable progress was being made by the OPW in relation to the procurement of suitable accommodation. To date, agreement has been reached in respect of a number of sites and it is anticipated that some 20 sites will have been secured by the end of this month with sites/premises secured in all locations by the end of this year.

Conclusion
The Minister concluded by re-iterating the voluntary nature of the decentralisation programme. He said “I recognise that individuals may be facing difficult choices and have legitimate concerns. I am confident that these can be addressed as we move forward.”

A briefing by Departmental officials will be held in the main conference room of the Department of Finance, Merrion St., at 5.30pm this (Thursday) evening.

ENDS