Some bodies face a 100 per cent staff turnover if decentralisation goes ahead, writes Chris Dooley, Industry and Employment Correspondent.
Seven months after it was announced to roars of approval from the Fianna Fáil benches in the Dáil, the full extent of the difficulties posed by the Government's decentralisation programme are beginning to emerge. Implementation plans drawn up by a range of State and official organisations expose a litany of problems which will be difficult and costly to overcome.
The National Roads Authority, for example, says it may be unable to deliver major roads programmes on schedule because it faces the loss of experienced personnel who will be difficult to replace.
None of the authority's 89 staff has applied to move to its proposed new headquarters in Ballinasloe.
The Equality Authority is also confronted with the prospect of a 100 per cent turnover in staff if its move to Roscrea goes ahead.
As its implementation dryly puts it: "A staff survey was conducted. Its principle finding is that none of the staff indicated a willingness to move with their current post to Roscrea."
It could take years, the authority warns, to rebuild the experience and expertise it has accumulated in the four years of its existence.
Other plans released yesterday on request to The Irish Times, or published on Government websites after copies were sought by this newspaper, outlined similar, far-reaching concerns.
Each Government department and State organisation due to be decentralised was required to produce such a plan, to be considered by the overall implementation body chaired by Mr Phil Flynn.
Some are more positive in their outlook than others, but even the plans prepared by Government departments outline potential serious difficulties.
The Department of Agriculture, for example, says it risks losing expert staff from previously decentralised offices such as Cavan, Wexford and Castlebar, "where very complex functions are being managed".
No doubt the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, would say that for every such problem there is a solution.
All of the plans, indeed, do outline the steps which organisations plan to take to mitigate the difficulties. It is clear, however, that some find the problems overwhelming.
Others couch their plans in best-foot-forward terms, but fail to hide near-insurmountable problems.
The National Standards Authority of Ireland, for example, which had published its plan prior to yesterday, sets out a timetable for completion of decentralisation to Arklow. Phase one would see most staff moving next summer, with the remainder relocating in early 2007.
But the plan warns of major problems if large numbers of staff choose not to relocate, due to the high level of expertise among its existing workforce. To date, just two of its 138 staff have applied to move to Arklow.
Other organisations are more forthright about the difficulties they face.
The Equality Tribunal says an "appreciable loss of service" to users "appears inevitable" if its move to Portarlington takes place. With none of its equality officers wishing to decentralise, it faces acute difficulties finding suitable replacements, it points out.
"The appointment of persons who were not capable of analysing complex legal argument or managing difficult hearings would lead the tribunal into disrepute, would adversely affect the parties to cases (over 1,000 complaints in 2003) and would risk Ireland being in breach of the European equality directives' requirement to provide effective redress for discrimination," its plan says.
The tribunal is one of a number of organisations, including the NRA, the Equality Authority and the Probation and Welfare Service, which say they will need to retain a presence in Dublin in order to operative effectively.
Several also warn that decentralisation is already having an impact on staff morale.
The NRA says highly qualified and specialised technical staff need further information about their future roles.
"While the [National Roads] Authority will make every effort to allay their fears and reservations, the lack of information makes this task extremely difficult."