DECENTRALISATION – Key Government Departments not releasing staff

national | worker & community struggles and protests | news report Tuesday May 23, 2006 17:26 by Liam Mullen - Freelance Journalist

Despite all the rhetoric emerging from government circles about how smoothly decentralisation is progressing, it has emerged that certain government departments are refusing to release staff that volunteer for decentralisation.

Departments who have invested heavily in staff training don’t want to see highly trained personnel disappearing, and have effectively put a block on those wishing to depart Dublin. The Civil Service has always operated a funny policy on transfers anyway, and has unusual systems in place to discourage inter-departmental transfers. It’s website boasts that a civil service career is not a “static thing,” and that “mobility is key,” but in practice many civil servants are unable to move for one reason or another. It is static.
One insider has revealed that the Revenue Commissioners are loathe to release staff, although even prior to the Performance Management System – a system designed to address the training and development needs of every civil servant – this is one department that hasn’t been afraid to spend money on its staff. Its investment in its staff is one of the key reasons why they won’t release their people for decentralisation.
It’s a far cry from the Department of Social, Family and Community Affairs that up to recent times had a habit of putting untrained personnel on desks to deal with the latest applications for PPS numbers, unemployment claims, and other social welfare entitlements.
On John Bowman’s Questions and Answers last night, Minister Micheál Martin of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment painted a rosy picture of decentralisation requests, but it is clear that the decentralisation issue is one that won’t disappear into the sunset.