Madam, - As a State agency employee I would like to put on record my anger and dismay at the Government's handling of the decentralisation process. State agency staff are being treated disgracefully. There is no option in the new central applications facility to select Dublin as your first choice location and we are now in a position whereby we must apply for our own jobs. This is patently ridiculous.
The Minister for Finance has told us that decentralisation is voluntary - but what are we volunteering for? Those of us who volunteer to stay in Dublin have been given no indication of what we might expect after decentralisation.
This is clearly a political manoeuvre designed to boost votes in the forthcoming elections. The Minister is using civil and public servants as political footballs. However, given that, (according to the relevant trade unions), the numbers interested in decentralising are as low as 5 per cent in some agencies I think he may have scored an own goal. - Yours, etc.,
LOUISE O'REILLY, Downpatrick Road, Dublin 12.