Skip to content
DECENTRALISATION

SIPTU's position on decentralisation

Michael Halpenny 160 The Government first announced its proposal to relocate over ten thousand civil and public service jobs to fifty-three locations around the country in December 2003. At that time SIPTU argued that any such proposal could only be implemented on an agreed basis which respected the voluntary nature of the programme.

We further argued that there were specific problems in relation to the State agency sector which do not exist in the civil service.  For example, unlike Government Departments, there is little or no tradition of transfers between State agencies, while the employment relationship between staff and their agency is completely different to the relationship between a civil servant and a Government department.

At the Union’s National Delegate Conference in October 2005, delegates voted unanimously in favour of a motion calling on the Union's National Executive Council and General Officers to campaign forcefully to seek the full removal of all non-commercial State agencies from what was described as the Government’s ‘flawed, illogical and ill-conceived’ decentralisation plan and to support our members' non-operation with the plan.

With over 50% of the 2,500 State agency employees in membership of the Union,
SIPTU's position remains that the decentralisation project can only proceed on a voluntary basis only.




Previous and Next: COMMUNITY CHILDCARE | EXPLOITATION and DISPLACEMENT