The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has ruled out any suggestion of compensation for those relocated under the Government's decentralisation plan, announced last week by Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy.
Speaking at the unveiling of a memorial statue for Brendan Behan in Drumcondra today, Mr Ahern said that while he understood the complications involved in moving, there was no precedent for paying compensation to those who moved.
Speaking at Binn's Bridge on the Royal Canal, Mr Ahern said: "In all the decentralisation that we have done. There is not moving expenses, there is not compensation. There never has been and there won't be."
"I know from my personal knowledge that people moving out of the city do very well. In an area like this, house prices are €300,000 to €400,000," added Mr Ahern. "A house three times the size in Kanturk for example, five-bedroom houses can be as much as €200,000. So, there is a lot of gains in this.
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| The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern: no moving expenses
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"The demand from public servants generally [. . . ] has been for a long time for people to get out and move out and I think that is what people want to do."
There have been calls this week by civil service unions for the Government to clarify how it proposes to run the various departments cohesively.
Mr Sean O'Riordain, General Secretary of the Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants (AHCPS), told the Irish Timesthat he while the association was "not hostile" to the plan it was still unclear as to how it would be implemented.
The Taoiseach today dismissed such suggestions and said that the plan would not make good governing more difficult.
"I don't think there is any great controversy about this," said Mr Ahern.
"I have been talking to senior civil servants and those in the middle ranking and lower ranking in the last number of days. I think they are glad that the decision has been made, I think they know the blueprint and they know the plan and as always they will get on with it.
The Taoiseach said he had put his faith in the Irish technology sector to help establish adequate lines of communication to aid the transfer of departments.
"With information communication technology now, some of the best multi-nationals companies here can have board meetings with their parent companies and their principals in Australia and Asia and the United States.
"This happens everyday and to be quite honest I think it would be a bit of an insult to our own technology industry to think that we couldn't have good meeting from Kanturk to Athlone to Portarlington."
