The logistics and practicalities of dealing with a decentralised Government department have still to be completely worked out, the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Séamus Brennan, said yesterday, during a visit to the offices of his new department in Killarney.
Mr Brennan said he was fully committed to the decentralisation of his department.
He also appealed to Irish people "to hold their nerve" in the face of the current weather and to holiday as planned in Ireland this late July and August.
About half of the 140 staff have already moved to the temporary headquarters of the department at Fossa.
The construction of a new building on a greenfield site in the town centre is under way and the new office is expected to open in late 2008 or early 2009.
Killarney will host the first fully decentralised headquarters of any government department, Mr Brennan said.
Asked how he envisaged the practicalities of dealing with a department so far from his constituency base, and from the Dáil, Mr Brennan said Ministers could not in future expect to be appointed to departments located in their own regions.
The new Minister said he would be visiting his headquarters in Killarney from time to time.
There was an arrangement in the decentralisation process for Ministers and very senior officers who will need a presence in Dublin when the Dáil is sitting. However, the logistics of subcommittee meetings and interdepartmental group meetings had yet to be fully worked out.
The most practical thing would be for these meetings to take place in Dublin, he said.