Martin Mansergh: The decentralisation programme has the potential to bring about a fundamental and healthy change in the regional balance of the country. It could greatly diminish the gulf between Dublin and the rest of Ireland, and spur a more even spread of growth and development.
Ireland is probably the most centralised state in Western Europe. Some of this is related to the economies of scale associated with a relatively small population.
Devolution through the health boards is being rescinded. The proposed regional education authorities did not proceed.
We do not have regional police forces. In most areas, there are national authorities. Regional bodies, except Shannon Development, have only a consultative and co-ordinating remit. Most public grants are centrally applied for, administered and distributed.
In federal states, and even devolved ones, political power and administrative personnel are more diffused. Careers are divided between the centre and the regions. In France under the prefectural system, high-flying administrators became responsible for départements far from Paris.
Many government departments stayed in Bonn after German unity, and did not move to Berlin.
In the absence of devolution, decentralisation is an alternative means of bringing government amongst the people, and for softening the them-and-us mentality.
The experience of decentralisation has been mainly positive. There were earlier one-offs, the most significant of which is the internationally-respected Garda Training College at Templemore.
Decentralisation can protect the future of State agencies. An Foras Forbartha would probably never have been abolished in 1986 if its staff had agreed to move to Cork, as proposed under another government nearly four years earlier.
Two decentralisation programmes in the late 1980s and early 1990s brought nearly 5,000 jobs to cities and large towns, with benefit to the efficient delivery of services.
The cost of living, and especially housing, in a provincial town is generally cheaper, and access to leisure amenities easier. Modern, purpose-built office accommodation is often superior to older buildings in Dublin, as well as less costly to the State. Living and working outside Dublin often represents a big improvement in the quality of life.
The present decentralisation programme is partly a continuation of the earlier ones. There is no new issue of principle in decentralising self-contained units, of say, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform in a cluster to Tipperary.
Completing the Land Registry move to Roscommon, first announced by Taoiseach Albert Reynolds in 1994, is a link between the present and the earlier programmes.
The present plan means that civil servants, just like gardaí and bankers, will have more mobile careers. A range of experience, evidence of adaptability and a get-up-and-go approach should be no block to personal advancement.
Criticism has concentrated mainly on two aspects, the choice of locations related to the National Spatial Strategy (NSS), and the decentralisation of whole Departments, including their policy-making functions.
Between a quarter and a third of the jobs are assigned to hubs and gateways or primary development centres (e.g. Newbridge, Balbriggan, Drogheda and Navan). When previous decentralisation programmes are taken into account, where 84 per cent of the jobs are in the hubs or gateways, the proportion is nearly half.
Every hub and gateway now has or will have decentralised offices. Nearly all other locations are on or beside the national transport corridors designated in the NSS.
The NSS was focused on identifying the main centres, where private sector growth is most likely to concentrate, and on providing the appropriate planning and infrastructure. Decentralisation is as much about balancing and linking those concentrations as reinforcing them.
In South Tipperary there was a consensus that decentralisation should go, not to the main hub Clonmel (not officially designated as such), but to the two RAPID towns Tipperary and Carrick-on-Suir, the first of which was selected. The second has expectations of jobs still to be allocated.
Why, in the eyes of commentators, should the RAPID programme, which is about social inclusion, be a less eligible criterion than the NSS?
As for politics, I know many Fine Gael Oireachtas members who are delighted with the locations, and not shy about claiming credit for them.
As for the coherence of government, the headquarters of the main co-ordinating Departments, Taoiseach, Finance, Foreign Affairs, Justice, Enterprise, Trade and Employment, and Health, remain in Dublin.
Other Departments, Agriculture and Food at Portlaoise, Defence at Newbridge, Education and Science at Mullingar, Social and Family Affairs at Drogheda, as well as OPW at Trim, are within contraflow commuting distance from Dublin.
It is 50 minutes by train to Portlaoise, 35 minutes to Drogheda and Newbridge, 1 hour 10 minutes to Mullingar, so if partners or families are reluctant to move in many cases they would not have to.
What exactly is wrong with Agriculture and Food being in the middle of the Irish countryside instead of the centre of Dublin, or having Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs based in the west?
Or with Arts, Sport and Tourism being in the oldest resort in Ireland, Killarney, which will be a far more accurate barometer than Dublin of the state of tourism? OPW is going to Trim, where the restored castle will be a magnificent showcase of its skills.
Warnings from retired public figures that we are breaking up a fine administrative system remind me of predictions by John Major that devolution to Scotland would mean the break-up of the United Kingdom.
Fianna Fáil won a clear electoral mandate for the progressive decentralisation of government offices and agencies, particularly to well-placed and substantial towns with not a lot of industrial employment.
It is the duty of civil servants to carry out the programme for government. In post-Thatcher Labour Britain, Tony Blair wants under-performers in the civil service to be sacked, high-flyers to be put on four-year contracts, and headquarters staff reduced, commending the army's can-do approach.
Irish civil servants enjoy a more secure political environment. They should rise to the challenge of decentralisation, and be prepared to go with their offices, unless there are compelling personal reasons preventing them from doing so.