The Government was urged yesterday to remove all non-commercial State agencies from its decentralisation programme. A motion describing the programme as "flawed, illogical and ill-conceived" was passed by delegates to the Siptu conference in Cork.
Larry Buggy, of the Fás branch, said that the branch had 200 members whose jobs were to be decentralised [ to Birr, Co Offaly]. "It is important to the members of the Fás branch that this decentralisation is fought against," he said. "They have homes and family commitments which will be affected, and they have quite clearly shown that they do not want to enter into this process."
Dublin regional secretary Patricia King said that the Government's programme was fundamentally flawed. A commitment had been given that nobody would have to move unless they had agreed to do so, but the reality was "entirely different".
"In effect, the Government decision is to dismantle some of our best semi-State companies and have the workers, most of whom are our members, scramble around in the public sector, and indeed possibly in the Civil Service, to look for a job," she said.
The motion passed by the conference called on Siptu's leaders to "campaign forcefully" to have the non-commercial semi-State bodies removed from the programme. It also expressed support for Siptu members' non-co-operation with the process.
