The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has denied a suggestion by the Labour leader that the "foot has been taken off the accelerator" on decentralisation.
Speaking during Question Time in the Dáil this afternoon, Mr Ahern insisted the Government's plans to move thousands of civil servants out of Dublin was on track. Staff from eight other Government departments are to be moved to 53 different locations around the country.
"The Government is committed to [decentralisation], the Government is moving ahead," the Taoiseach insisted.
However, he accepted that it may take longer than the stated deadline of 2007 to achieve this goal. "The civil service will still be here in 2008, 2009 and 2010," he said. "It makes sense to do this. In a small country on a small island and I believe we can do it in a very short space of time."
Mr Ahern confirmed 44 people of those working in the Department of the Taoiseach, had applied to move, including 12 executive officers. "Although 20 per cent of the people, at all levels, have opted to move I do not think that will create difficulty for my department," he said.
Mr Pat Rabbitte claimed the Government was attempting to slow down the process as it knew it was unworkable. "This wasn't a decentralisation programme at all, it was about the dispersal of civil servants," he said.
Mr Ahern said moving civil servants around the country would not affect the workings of Government adversely. He said departments intended to make more use of information technology to communicate with each other.
"Is the Taoiseach telling this House that he thinks he can conduct the Government of this country by teleconferencing and videoconferencing?" asked Mr Rabbitte. "I know some of his colleagues on the front bench mightn't be all that happy about being in the same room as him, but videoconferencing to me seems to be taking it a step too far."
Mr Ahern said the reality was that modern communications had made contact between departments more efficient than ever before, no matter where they were situated. "There are multi-national companies that employ up to 400,000 people in all the continents which can coherently organise their business so there's no reason why the Irish public service in 25 counties and 50 locations can't do it without a problem."
