Madam, -Thank you for highlighting the fact that only three of the 130 staff in the Irish Prison Service are interested in moving from Clondalkin to Longford (The Irish Times, December 23rd).
As a local councillor in Clondalkin, I have been asked to highlight the same fact. I am unhappy that this move is being imposed on the staff of the Prison Service and that our area, which does suffer from unemployment, is to lose 130 jobs. According to my sources, staff in Clondalkin petitioned against this move, but their case was ignored. I would like to point out that the move of the Irish Prison Service to Clondalkin not so long ago suited many staff as it meant they did not have to journey into the city centre.
Over Christmas I passed through Birr and viewed the famous leaflets from Minister of State Tom Parlon taking credit for decentralising civil service jobs to Laois and Offaly.
What were Clondalkin's Government TDs, Mary Harney and John Curran, doing to try to retain these jobs in our neck of the woods? - Yours, etc.,
Cllr ROBERT DOWDS, Castle Park, Dublin 22.