Union reaction: Public service workers who fear they will be surplus to requirements after their posts are decentralised yesterday expressed renewed concern for their future.
The Government was also told it would be "highly arrogant" of it to proceed with the decentralisation of agencies and departments which were highly dependent on specialist staff who did not wish to move.
The claim was made by Mr Peter Nolan, national secretary of the union IMPACT, who said the report of the decentralisation implementation committee had ignored a "real threat to public services".
"If implemented, its recommendations would create skills shortages across the Civil Service while skilled professionals sit idle in Dublin," he said.
"We need a fundamental review of this programme."
While one public service union, the CPSU, welcomed the report, others also highlighted concerns about staff wishing to remain in Dublin after their posts have moved.
They had been promised a system similar to the Central Applications Facility (CAF) which would allow them to apply for jobs vacated by colleagues who had chosen to decentralise.
In its report yesterday, however, the group makes no mention of a CAF-type system for those remaining in Dublin.
Instead it refers to unspecified "arrangements" for managing inter-departmental transfers for staff wishing to stay in Dublin.
"The selection of those to transfer will initially be done on the basis of volunteers. If there are insufficient volunteers, the 'last in first out' principle will apply," the report says.
Mr Seán Ó Riordáin, general secretary of the Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants, said the plight of surplus Dublin-based staff was becoming the "real big issue" of the decentralisation programme.
