Civil Service unions and management will today discuss the implications of the large-scale decentralisation programme announced last week by the Government.
The two sides are expected to establish a joint sub-committee to oversee industrial-relations aspects of the programme, which has received a mixed reaction from unions.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, reiterated yesterday that there would be no dilution of the relocation programme as planned. He told the Cabinet that any problems raised would be dealt with during the implementation process getting under way this week.
An implementation committee, chaired by Mr Phil Flynn, has been set up and is to report to the Government by March 31st next.
Some 10,300 civil and public servants are to be decentralised to 53 locations around the State over the next three years.
Civil Service unions will discuss the proposals at two meetings today. First, unions will air views among themselves at the monthly meeting of the Civil Service general council staff panel. That will be followed by a meeting, also scheduled before last week's decentralisation programme was announced, with officials from the Department of Finance.
Mr Blair Horan of the Civil and Public Services Union said last night that unions had different perspectives on the issue.
No union had come out against the proposals, but the attitude was likely to be "less positive" among staff on higher grades. However, the true feelings of staff would not be known until the Government began the process of attempting to fill particular positions in different locations. Mr Horan said he had no doubt that decentralisation was feasible, but it remained to be seen whether it could be done on the scale and in the timeframe envisaged.
A union-management sub-committee to oversee the industrial relations aspects would undoubtedly be set up, he added, as this was the normal procedure.
"Remember that decentralisation itself is not new. We have decentralised 4,000 people over six years, so a lot of the template for what needs to be done is already in place."
It needed to be established how the template could be adjusted to cater for the new elements in the proposed programme, such as the decentralisation of State agencies, the scale of the programme and the need to relocate people on higher grades.
