285 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Finance the major factors which led to the particular decentralised location chosen, and the criteria used for selection in respect of each decentralisation move in his Department outlined in the budget 2004 statement. [21416/04]

A wide range of factors were taken into account and balanced against each other in making the overall selection of location for each Department and agency. These factors included: the need to achieve a fit with the national spatial strategy, in terms of the gateways, hubs and their respective catchments; the location of existing decentralised offices; the desirability of clustering a Department's decentralised units within a region; the importance of respecting the scale and character of locations in terms of their capacity to absorb the number of new jobs involved; the existence of good transport links by road, rail and-or air; and, the general infrastructural capacity in the areas selected.