Opposition parties have called for a review of the Government’s decentralisaiton plans following an ESRI report indicating the economy was headed towards recession for the first time since 1983.
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore questioned whether it made sense to spend up to €1 billion on the process in light of the changed economic circumstances.
Mr Gilmore also questioned how public services would be delivered after the process was completed given a recent OECD report on the public sector had predicted the process would result in a 90 per cent turnover of staff in some areas.
At leaders’ questions in the Dáil this afternoon, Mr Gilmore asked Taoiseach Brian Cowen whether or not the Government’s decentralisation plan – as conceived by then-minister for finance Charlie McCreevy – represented value for money for the taxpayer.
Mr Cowen dismissed Mr Gilmore’s suggestion that the OECD report had been critical of the plan.
He said he had received very positive feedback from staff who had relocated under the programme and that the process so far had been an “unmitigated success” in terms of quality of life, work environment and the efficiency of service.
“We will continue to seek to implement it in a prudent and proper working in partnership with staff organisations and with trade unions as has been the case up to now.”
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said although the process had been carried out efficiently in some areas, it had fallen well behind its initial schedule of three years.
Mr Kenny said the OECD report had been critical of the process, suggesting that if it continued in the same way the quality of public service would be fragmented.
“We know from internal documents from the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources that the decentralisation has negatively affected the roll-out of broadband services,” he said.
