THE GOVERNMENT is today to cancel the controversial decentralisation programme which aimed to move thousands of civil servants and State agency staff out of Dublin to locations around the coutry.
As part of its new public service reform plan, 40 projects where permanent accommodation has not been obtained are to be scrapped, and 20 others are to be reviewed shortly by the Government. Around 30 projects where staff had been relocated and permanent accommodation secured will remain in place.
The Government will also announce that staffing levels in the public service will be reduced to 282,500 by 2015. At present thereare around 297,000 on the public payroll.
In advance of the announcements, the Government last night told trade unions that staff in the public service will not lose out by moves to reform annual leave arrangements unless they currently have more than 32 days off per year or accept promotion.
The Government also said just under 50 State agencies are to be merged or abolished next year as part of measures aimed at tackling so-called quangos. In relation to about 30 of these, the Government will restate a previous announcement. A further 40 agencies will be “critically reviewed” by next June.
Highly placed sources said that there have been some last-minute changes to the plan. The Sports Council and the National Campus Development Agency, which was established to develop a sports campus at Abbotstown in Dublin, will now be merged rather than abolished and subsumed back into the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport.
Under changes to be announced today staff in the civil service, local authorities, non-commercial State agencies, the health service and non-teaching personnel in the education sector who currently have more than 32 days leave per year will have their leave entitlements cut back.
Anyone who has leave reduced will be compensated by means of a once-off provision of additional time off calculated at 1.5 times the loss of annual holidays.
Staff entering the public service from the start of next year or who accept promotion will have a maximum of 30 days leave per year.
Some staff - believed mainly to be a small number of service officers in departments – will see leave arrangements increased under the new measures. These are staff who currently have fewer than 22 days off each year.
