I do not want to argue the merits or demerits of decentralisation. As far as I know, no Member of the House is opposed to a well-managed well-structured and well thought-out programme for decentralisation. However, the statement made by the Minister for Finance, Deputy McCreevy, over the weekend, that "a hanging job" was in prospect for the Government if this programme was not delivered before the next general election appears to be the first public occasion where this Administration has blatantly attempted to politicise the Civil Service. Does the Taoiseach accept and endorse the validity of the statement made by the Minister for Finance that despite the fact that this is a voluntary scheme it will be implemented, with 10,000 civil servants to be moved inside three years? Is this not evidence of standing by the Government's stated code of ethics, "Get in here and stay in here"?

Is not clear that the philosophy arising from this is that the running of the country is predicated not for the good of the people or in the public interest but in the interest of the political party and the Government lead by the Taoiseach? In other words, everything is determined by the date of the next general election. The Civil Service was never meant to be a tool to be used by Government in this fashion.

Does the Taoiseach endorse and agree with the statement by the Minister for Finance? Does he not accept that the consequence of his statement is the naked politicisation of the Civil Service which has served all Governments well over the past 80 years? Will the Taoiseach comment on that?

I am happy to comment on that. The Civil Service has never been politicised and I do not think it every will be. It stands on its own standards and rules, and any legislation that governs it is passed by this House — that is infrequent enough. Most of the legislation on this issue dates back close to half a century.

The Government has announced the next phase of the decentralisation process. When the announcement was made we set out the timescale within which it was hoped to achieve it. The Minister for Finance merely said that we have to demonstrate that we are serious and committed to it by implementing as much of the decentralisation programme as possible within that period. We all know that it is a voluntary process. It has to be negotiated. There is no compulsion and there will be no redundancies involved. It has to be done by upfront negotiations, and that process has already started.

A meeting with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions is due to take place shortly. Under the Civil Service conciliation and arbitration agreement, a sub-committee of the general council has already been established to discuss all the issues relating to decentralisation. The Flynn group presented its first report to the Cabinet sub-committee last week and will present its implementation plan at the end of March. The report was well received by the sub-committee.

There is no question of politicisation, we are trying to implement the plan in a certain period of time if possible. Deputy Kenny would not accuse me of political expediency in setting targets for moving on the plan. I was asked less than an hour ago if we benchmark decisions under the programme for Government against a time scale for implementation. Moving more than 10,000 jobs to 53 centres will not be easy but there is no point in Government saying it will implement a plan if it then sits back and does nothing. For the period that any Government is in office, it should be intent on doing what it says it will do, and that is what this Government will do. That does not politicise the Civil Service in any way.

I understand the personal issues surrounding the exercise. In some of the lower grades the take-up rate is four times what we need while in other grades we have difficulties. That also happened ten years ago but we cannot do much more than say that it is entirely voluntary and no compunction or redundancy will be involved to ensure it is not politicised. We have already started the negotiating process.

This contradicts directly what the Minister for Finance said last week, when he stated that he makes no secret that he set a December 2006 deadline because the next general election is due in 2007. That politicises the Civil Service regardless of whether the Taoiseach likes it.

It is a fact of life that the accounting officers in every Department have to produce a risk assessment in any major move like this. The Minister for Finance said that no one was involved in this decision and the Minister of State, Deputy Parlon, knew nothing about it at the time. Will these risk assessments be published? If they are not used by the Minister, they must be reported to the Comptroller and Auditor General.

It is obvious that only 20% of public servants have confidence in the plan. In the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, 69 out of 503 surveyed want to move to Carlow, where 250 are required. Only three out of the Department's 103 senior staff want to move. In the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, 35 out of 40 senior civil servants indicated that they did not wish to move to Wexford, although others might.

This programme was criticised by the ESRI, the Royal Institute of Architects, the Royal Town Planning Institute and the Institute of Engineers among others. Given that is the case and given that it is inherent in the standards of public office that public interest should always take precedence over the interests of the individual and, more importantly, the interests of a political party, will the Taoiseach go back to the drawing board and produce a programme which is realistic and acceptable and which does not politicise the Civil Service, as has been blatantly attempted by the Minister for Finance in the interests of the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats Government?

I do not believe that trying to implement the decentralisation plan, achieving balanced regional development and moving people out of greater Dublin, where the population now exceeds 2 million, politicises anything. If the Minister for Finance had taken a relaxed view and said that we might have the plan implemented by December 2010, at least four years after we leave office, Deputy Kenny would be the first to ask what kind of commitment we were displaying to decentralisation.

I am well aware of the rules that govern the implementation of policy and we must always take the correct decisions. We must follow the correct procurement and legal positions and negotiate with the staff. I am not sure about figures at this stage because, until things are explained to people, their questions are answered and the Government provides reassurance to those involved, figures will not be everything.

I remember the battles I fought to move the CSO to Mahon in Cork when I was Minister for Finance. At that stage Mahon was an area of social exclusion and I was told the CSO would never move there and should give up the idea. I recently visited the CSO and the people working there are happy.

The Taoiseach did not propose to move anyone to Tallaght.

We will follow proper procedures and negotiate with staff. It is difficult to say when the plan will be complete but hopefully the Government will achieve as much as possible.