IRELAND
Ireland’s Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe (pictured) says moves to disperse Public Servants around the country will be stepped up in the future.
Delivering his Budget speech, he said officials will be reviewing future workforce and office requirements for the Public Service to consider the location of support offices and services.
“This will ensure consistency with Ireland 2040 goals and balanced regional development, Mr Donohoe said.
“Demographic changes and the next wave of technological change will place new demands on our key offices and Departments.”
He said the Public Service of the future would be different in terms of its skills mix, use of technology and geographical footprint, and this would require a longer-term vision and strategy.
There are currently 335,594 PS employees in the country — an increase of more than 42,000 since 2014.
Decentralisation was proposed in 2003 by then Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy.
The Minister’s plan was to move 10,300 Dublin-based PS staff outside the capital by 2007 to 53 locations in 25 counties.
However, only one-third of those jobs were decentralised before the plan was abandoned in 2011, widely considered a failure.
The trade union Fórsa, which represents about 80,000 public sector staff, said it expected to be briefed by the Government on its plan and would examine the initiative further at that stage.
Dublin, 10 October 2019
