GOVERNMENTS RARELY, if ever, admit to making mistakes. And this one is no exception. Having caused seven years of administrative disruption and spent hundreds of million of euro on provincial building sites and local properties, it is quietly abandoning the more contentious elements of Charlie McCreevy’s decentralisation programme. The latest review of capital expenditure from the Department of Finance emphasises value for money and notes the programme will be examined next year.
Having invested so much political capital in this vote-getting exercise, Fianna Fáil is reluctant to let go. Fifty- three locations were originally promised a supply of public servants but that number increased as a result of political lobbying. The number of civil service offices, complete departments and State agencies nominated for transfer out of Dublin also grew to a total of 89. So far, 26 transfers have been completed; there are advance parties at 14 locations and 42 projects have been put on hold. But because the public finances have worsened since Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan announced a review of the programme in 2008, early progress is not expected.
A special report commissioned by the Government from the OECD in 2008 confirmed what various independent agencies had been saying for years. The decentralisation programme was likely to cause dislocation and fragmentation in public administration, along with a loss of corporate knowledge. The headquarters of eight departments were scheduled to move. Senior managers – in some cases entire agencies – had refused to leave Dublin and provincial volunteers did not have the knowledge or the experience to provide high quality services.
What will happen to advance parties of public servants now occupying 14 centres in provincial areas? Will they be recalled to Dublin? Are long-term property leases involved? What about those senior managers who refused to co-operate? And will the Croke Park deal have any implications for service restructuring?
In its review of capital expenditure, the Department of Finance noted that, with the exception of the transfer of the Department of Agriculture to Portlaoise (which just happens to be in the Taoiseach’s constituency) the decentralisation programme was nearly complete. Any further investment would have to be considered in the context of constrained resources and the need to develop infrastructure to support economic recovery. So, in political terms, Brian Cowen will have delivered.