Phelan furious over decentralisation delay
Carlow Kilkenny’s youngest Oireachtas member Senator John Paul Phelan has hit out at the Government’s announcement that it is to scrap decentralisation plans for now.
Senator Phelan said that the budget announcement illustrated how unreliable and uncommitted it is to its pre-election promises.
“It is infuriating that the Government has pulled back its plans to decentralise the Health and Safety Authority to Thomastown and the Department of Heritage & Local Government and the Arts Council to Kilkenny for at least three years.”
The Spokesperson for Enterprise in the Seanad added, “there had been plans for 62 employees to decentralise to Kilkenny city in the Department of Heritage and Local Government while an additional 49 were due to move to Kilkenny with the Arts Council. These plans, along with the proposed move of the HSA to Thomastown, have been kicked to touch until 2011 – some five years behind the initial schedule,” said Senator Phelan.
“From the very beginning, the plans for decentralisation were shambolic and disorganised. Nobody has ever believed that it was anything other than an electioneering ploy and the Government has proved this itself, following its claw-back on many promises including decentralisation on Tuesday last.
“This review that the Government has promised for 2011 is yet another attempt at holding the public at arms length as it continues to procrastinate over important decisions regarding investment in the regions. This may seem like small fry to the hot shots in Dublin, however, many of the regions including Kilkenny and particularly Thomastown, were dependant on the investment and the business that this decentralisation plan would have brought to the local business population. The Government has once again annihilated plans with one fell swoop and dashed the hopes of us seeing a Government agency employee in Thomastown in the near future.