Major national road projects are likely to be significantly delayed because of the Government's decentralisation programme, the National Roads Authority has warned.
It says the programme has "extremely serious" implications for its own operations, including its plan to complete major inter-urban routes by 2008 to 2010.
Other State bodies have also expressed serious reservations about the programme in documents released yesterday.
The Equality Authority says the loss of skilled and experienced staff arising from decentralisation could expose it to the risk of court action.
It could take years, it warns, for it to rebuild lost capacities if its planned move to Roscrea, Co Tipperary, takes place. None of its 53 staff has indicated a willingness to move to the new location.
The concerns are outlined in decentralisation implementation plans, some of which were published yesterday and others provided to The Irish Times on request.
Each organisation selected for decentralisation was required to prepare such a plan for the implementation group chaired by Mr Phil Flynn.
The NRA says decentralisation of its staff and operations to Ballinasloe, Co Galway, could cause significant "corporate memory loss", the seriousness of which "must not be underestimated".
"The opinion of management is that decentralisation and the consequent potential loss of expertise, will render the authority unable to deliver on the national roads programme until such time as suitably qualified personnel, particularly in the technical area, are recruited and trained." The plan makes clear, however, that finding such personnel will not be easy. Replacing senior project managers is likely to prove particularly difficult.
As well as highlighting the impact on service delivery, several agencies claim that decentralisation will impose significant extra costs.
The Probation and Welfare Service, which is to be moved to Navan, Co Meath, says officers will have to travel to Dublin regularly for court duty and to interview clients. It is one of several organisations which says it will have to maintain facilities in Dublin if it is to operate effectively.
The Equality Authority says additional costs are likely to arise in a range of areas, including maintenance of a Dublin office and salaries while new staff are familiarising themselves with its work by overlapping with existing staff.
Its most serious concerns, however, arise from the potential loss of experienced personnel.
It took staff "a considerable amount of time", it says, for staff to become skilled in specialist areas such as information dissemination and legal case management. "Disruption of the delivery of these functions or the loss of skills in these areas may leave us open to the risk of court action."
