Does the Taoiseach agree that the prime motivation for the announcement on decentralisation last week was the political interest of his party to avoid decimation at the local elections next year and that the programme has been heavily influenced by political considerations? Clearly, having a Minister in or adjacent to a constituency has meant more civil servants in the raffle for the public service. Of the eight Departments to be decentralised, five are either in or close to Minister's constituencies and only one quarter of the posts will go to towns mentioned in the national spatial strategy.

Given that the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Parlon, has openly boasted that this was heavily influenced by political considerations and his involvement was central to the announcement of the transfer of civil servants to his constituency, does the Taoiseach consider that the Minister of State, for one, is clearly in breach of paragraph 1.4 of the Public Office Commission's code of conduct for Ministers and Ministers of State?

I do not agree with the Deputy. As Minister for Finance, I was actively involved in the decentralisation in the 1990s of approximately 4,500 public servants to various centres throughout the country. This has worked extremely well. In 1999 the Government stated that, due to the population growth in the greater Dublin region – 2 million inhabitants were enumerated there in the previous census – we would have a further period of decentralisation. A committee has worked on this since. We said we would wait until the national spatial strategy was launched before completing the work. We have done so and identified 53 locations in 25 counties for the decentralisation of 10,300 people. This is in keeping with previous decentralisation programmes. The schemes have been set out and the implementation group will hold its first meeting next week.

While Deputy Kenny said that the locations to which offices are being decentralised are either in or near Minister's constituencies, Ireland is a small country and it is to be expected that locations could be seen as being near certain places. It is not unlikely that they would be. I consider Mayo as being near Dublin. I noted over the weekend that many Opposition Members claimed they had an influence in this as well. We seem to have a great competition in claiming who has the most influence.

Who is in Government?

Allow the Taoiseach speak without interruption, please.

I suppose that as Taoiseach I should claim full credit.

The Taoiseach did not answer my question. I asked him if the Minister of State, Deputy Parlon, who has galloped in here from Parlon country, is in breach of paragraph 1.4 of the code of conduct for office holders. This paragraph states clearly that ethical behaviour requires Ministers to take decisions in the national interest over and above personal and parliamentary interests. The Minister of State, Deputy Parlon, said that no other public representative in the Laoighis-Offaly constituency, including the Minister for Foreign Affairs, had done anything for the people of that constituency over the years and that he was the great person to sort out their problems. This reminds me of the words of that great Mayo writer, Paul Durcan. When he wrote about the national spatial strategy, he said the Garden of Eden will be transferred from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism under its new Minister, Condoleezza Rice.

The criteria and analysis used in this non-political exercise, under the Taoiseach's direction, meant that 53 towns out of 130 were entitled to rejoice somewhat at the initial announcement, which was generally supported throughout the country. However, trust in politics is lost when cynicism such as we have witnessed creeps in.

Will the Taoiseach publish the analysis and criteria used in the selection of the 53 towns so people in Boyle, for instance, can understand why they were not considered suitable for an allocation of some element of the public service? The Taoiseach said on the 9 o'clock news that these criteria were based on discussions that had been taking place for three years. Does he consider that the Minister of State, Deputy Parlon, is clearly in breach of paragraph 1.4 of the code of conduct for office holders?

The criteria and what the Government was doing in respect of decentralisation and balanced regional development are published in documentation pertaining to our European effort of a few years ago, which was to try to divide the country on a regional basis, and the national spatial strategy.

On a serious note—

That is not an answer to the question that was asked.

Deputy Kenny is mistaken in that he is just thinking in terms of individual locations. The attempt is to have a regional spread and to try to locate Departments and agencies in a cluster. One of the general objections of public servants to decentralisation was that enormous difficulties would arise if it were carried out in a haphazard way, whereby people could not be promoted within a region. In the considerable consultation that took place in recent years, the public servants made this point validly and expressed it at their conferences in the four years since the Government launched its decentralisation programme. A serious point that must be made is that there is now regional balance, and it has been achieved in a proper manner.

On Deputy Kenny's question on the statements of Deputy Parlon or other Deputies—

He is an office holder.

Allow the Taoiseach.

A question has been tabled to the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Dermot Ahern, by a Fine Gael Member from the same constituency which castigates the Minister because he did not transfer his Department to that constituency.

I did even better. I located my previous Department there.

The Minister of State, Deputy Parlon, is an office holder.

The Taoiseach, without interruption.

Deputy Kenny and I have been Members of the House for long enough to know that there is a code of ethics whereby those who have been elected to the House try to remain elected. That is the code of ethics in this House.

Is that in published form?

To hell with freedom of information.

They claim everything. Opposition Members issued statements some days ago stating that their role in presenting the cases to Ministers visiting their constituencies is what turned the issue around. Fair play to them.

The Minister of State, Deputy Parlon, is also entitled to work for his constituency. What else would he be doing except working for it?

Leaflet No. 1.