A site for the new Department of Agriculture offices to accommodate hundreds of decentralised officials has been found.
Minister for Agriculture and Food Mary Coughlan today approved offices to be bought from the Industrial Development Agency just off the Mountrath Road in Portlaoise.
"The site provides ample space for the development of a complex to accommodate up to 850 of the Department's staff," Ms Coughlan said.
Agriculture is already the most decentralised of Government departments and is the furthest advanced in its plan to relocate its staff under the decentralisation programme announced by former minister for finance Charlie McCreevy in Budget 2003.
The department located 50 additional staff to Portlaoise in 2004, bringing the total number of the department's staff in the town to 200. Some 60 additional posts are being transferred from Dublin, with another 50 due by around the end of the year.
Agriculture officials are based in four separate offices in the town but with a further 600 due by 2008, a greenfield site for the new staff was sought. It is intended that by December 2008 the staff at these offices will be have been relocated to the new building.
"This decision clears the way for the OPW to finalise the organisation of the site and begin the task of building suitable new offices for the Department at the new location," Ms Coughlan said.
The department is the first to have finalised of its decentralisation plan. Some 2,130 posts from various departments and agencies are due to move to 15 locations by 2008 in the first phase of a project that will see thousands of civil and public service jobs moved from Dublin to the regions.