Should decentralisation be considered again?

Biggest lickspittle on boardz

The Big D was McCreevy’s code for decentralisation, the most audacious such plan since the foundation of the State, involving the dispersal of 10,300 public servants based in Dublin to 53 locations in 25 counties (more were added later, bringing the planned totals even higher: 10,922 people to 58 locations). It even included relocating the headquarters of eight government departments in places as far apart as Cavan and Killarney.
Agriculture was going to Portlaoise; Arts, Sport and Tourism to Killarney; Communications, Marine and Natural Resources to Cavan; Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs to Knock Airport; Defence to Newbridge; Education and Science to Mullingar; Environment, Heritage and Local Government to Wexford; and Social and Family Affairs to Drogheda.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/the-decentralisation-debacle-1.646870


It was an idea that could have transformed the economic landscape of Ireland, both rural and urban, if it had succeeded. Maybe it was ahead of its time, in some ways. But this was during the Celtic tiger, so people were probably more reluctant to move due to financial and lifestyle reasons. Dublin and the other cities were booming, so why move downwards?
Also, the broadband infrastructure was still in it's infancy, and it wasn't really feasible back then to depend on the communications structure. But technology has improved massively since, and remote working is now a very realistic option for many companies. So this is also an option that should be considered.

At present, we are in a scenario where housing demand is completely lop sided. The urban areas, especially Dublin ,are in a state of major crisis, without any likely solution for the foreseeable future. The only realistic option I can see is to consider decentralisation again, once the proper broadband infrastructure is in place.

Obviously, there would need to be incentives in order to encourage workers to move to rural areas. I would suggest a tax rebate, or perhaps paying less income tax in return for your co-operation. At first, there would be teething problems, and local services wouldn't be as developed as the major urban areas until demand became sufficient for the markets to catch up i.e. gyms, restaurants, cafes, creches, museums, political choices etc. But if you build it, they will come.

I'd be interested in hearing your opinions on why you would or wouldn't be interested in such a move, or why you think it would be a good/bad development. I think this option would tend to suit people with families rather than young people, as young people as a general rule tend to be drawn towards cities with a more progressive and liberal outlook.


Do you think decentralisation should be considered again?
Would you be interested in moving to a smaller town or rural area if the opportunity arose, and you were offered a tax rebate?

diomed

Is there anything to be said for moving the Dáil to Cork.

erica74

I already live in a rural area, can I have the lower income tax rate please?

kylith

I think decentralisation is great, in theory, but would need a better infrastructure, for a start. There's no reason this country couldn't have a high-speed rail network so that those based outside the capital could still get there for entertainment and social reasons.

angiogoir

What's needed is a move of the Dáil and central government apparatus outside of Dublin.

The_Valeyard

Not even refugees want to live in Ballaghaderreen

Kimbot

The costs alone of buying land and building offices etc would make this a complete non-runner at the moment i would imagine.

Ubbquittious

They need to stop herding new businesses into Dublin when there's a cheaper, emptier spot available for them elsewhere. Of course the counter argument to that is usually that the specific breed of tech hipster they're trying to recruit refuses to live in rural Ireland and needs to be close to Starbucks & Craft beer pubs at all times.

Darkglasses

I'm all for it. My family moved out of Dublin in the initial decentralisation, and I feel it has worked out great for us. Wexford Town would be a decent candidate again with its broadband infrastructure, only for the Housing supply is very limited as it is.

Rumpy Pumpy

Ubbquittious wrote: »

They need to stop herding new businesses into Dublin when there's a cheaper, emptier spot available for them elsewhere. Of course the counter argument to that is usually that the specific breed of tech hipster they're trying to recruit refuses to live in rural Ireland and needs to be close to Starbucks & Craft beer pubs at all times.

They probably don't want to live in a place with bitter and resentful mucksavages who go through life with a huge chip on the shoulder.

Aglomerado

diomed wrote: »

Is there anything to be said for moving the Dáil to Cork.

More likely to be Kilgarvan.

danganabu

jonnycivic wrote: »

The costs alone of buying land and building offices etc would make this a complete non-runner at the moment i would imagine.

More that offset by the extortionate rents being paid by departments for offices in the capital, a large portion of office space in Dublin is not actually owned by the state.

ohnonotgmail

danganabu wrote: »

More that offset by the extortionate rents being paid by departments for offices in the capital, a large portion of office space in Dublin is not actually owned by the state.

All of the buildings rented would be tied into leases. The government cant just walk away when they feel like it.

Neon_Lights

You need fundamentally sound organisations to do this to begin with. I for one am all in favour of culling the civil servants payroll in search for efficiencies.

Pure tashte

I suppose it come down to how attractive a proposition it would be to potential employees, whether they are recent graduates or experienced workers, and where they are originally from. Obviously, a large percentage of the Dublin based work force are from rural areas, would many of these move back to a rural area for work? A certain amount would, especially ones who are a bit older and want to own a home/start a family, or are just tired of living in Dublin.

Would Dublin born people move to a rural area for work? Less likely, especially in the case of recent graduates. Personally, I'm from a rural area but would like to stay living in Dublin for another few years at least (late 20s now and been here on/off since college), but if a good opportunity came up I would probably take it. Ireland is fairly small and it's easy enough to get to Dublin for a bit of craic at the weekends.

Dravokivich

Biggest lickspittle on boardz wrote: »

Do you think decentralisation should be considered again?
Would you be interested in moving to a smaller town or rural area if the opportunity arose, and you were offered a tax rebate?

Won't work. Very few foreign companies looking to employ a body of people look far outside of Dublin and have publically stated this. They've reasons for this. If the Government and relevant planning bodies don't address those reasons, displacing civil servants won't get things sorted for that.

kylith wrote: »

I think decentralisation is great, in theory, but would need a better infrastructure, for a start. There's no reason this country couldn't have a high-speed rail network so that those based outside the capital could still get there for entertainment and social reasons.

What do you consider high speed rail? Some people's expectation of high speed rail can be far higher than what is possible to invest in. There had been a discussion recently enough on the Commuting and Transport forum, where people where looking for high speed rail between Dublin and Cork. The reality is, it'll cost too much and the time gained would be marginal compared to bus services already in place.

hytrogen

diomed wrote:

Is there anything to be said for moving the Dáil to Cork.

angiogoir wrote:

What's needed is a move of the Dáil and central government apparatus outside of Dublin.

Well it once stood in Clonmacnoise and later Killaloe and we see how they're doing now...

Grayson

It's also down to a lack of residential properties. There's feck all anywhere. So getting people to move would be difficult.

There's no reason though small sections couldn't move. A lot of companies will have small teams, working on small projects, scattered about the globe. So it might be possible to start doing that.

Neon_Lights

Why can't we have an governmental capital like say canberra or Washington DC? There's space available and regions hungry for growth, I think it's time to admit Dublin is too congested

kylith

Ubbquittious wrote: »

They need to stop herding new businesses into Dublin when there's a cheaper, emptier spot available for them elsewhere. Of course the counter argument to that is usually that the specific breed of tech hipster they're trying to recruit refuses to live in rural Ireland and needs to be close to Starbucks & Craft beer pubs at all times.

Which there would be more of if there was the population to warrant them.

Dravokivich wrote: »

What do you consider high speed rail? Some people's expectation of high speed rail can be far higher than what is possible to invest in. There had been a discussion recently enough on the Commuting and Transport forum, where people where looking for high speed rail between Dublin and Cork. The reality is, it'll cost too much and the time gained would be marginal compared to bus services already in place.

TGV speeds.

Neon_Lights

hytrogen wrote: »

Well it once stood in Clonmacnoise and later Killaloe and we see how they're doing now...

Killaloe is doing quite well actually

Dravokivich

kylith wrote: »

TGV speeds.

From 300 km/h?

Ain't gonna happen here. There's way too much cost behind that.

impega1

Decentralisation Part 2 - no way

I would propose the opposite and suggest re centralisation and move all Civil Servants out of locations and move us all lock stock and barrel to a new central spot - Curragh looks ideal - where all of the Civil Service could work a lot more closer together and would allow for mush easier mobility of staff from one Department or Agency to another.

This would include all offices in Dublin moving to this location therefore all policy/administration could be developed and implemented more easily. It would further benefit from Shared Resources, HR and Payroll already there and Financial Management next in line.

With the motorway and rail network it would be navigable to most people.

Decentralisation was a big failure - no matter how much it was glossed up.

donegaLroad

The Big D was McCreevy’s code for decentralisation, the most audacious such plan since the foundation of the State, involving the dispersal of 10,300 public servants based in Dublin to 53 locations in 25 counties (more were added later, bringing the planned totals even higher: 10,922 people to 58 locations). It even included relocating the headquarters of eight government departments in places as far apart as Cavan and Killarney.
Agriculture was going to Portlaoise; Arts, Sport and Tourism to Killarney; Communications, Marine and Natural Resources to Cavan; Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs to Knock Airport; Defence to Newbridge; Education and Science to Mullingar; Environment, Heritage and Local Government to Wexford; and Social and Family Affairs to Drogheda.

What numbskull decided that Cavan would be a suitable location for the dept of Marine?

kylith

Dravokivich wrote: »

From 300 km/h?

Ain't gonna happen here. There's way too much cost behind that.

Think about it though: Dublin to Killarney in under an hour!

Sue Pa Key Pa

I moved from Dublin to Wexford over 30 years ago. No amount of money would tempt me back. However, if I was in Dublin with a young family and was offered decentralisation, I'd have to give serious consideration not to, on account of the state of provincial hospitals and lack of 3rd level colleges. Every location has ups and downs

animaal

donegaLroad wrote: »

What numbskull decided that Cavan would be a suitable location for the dept of Marine?

I'm sure Cavan was considered a marginal constituency at the time

Not being a sea-faring person, I would guess that it doesn't matter much where it goes. The Dept of the Marine doesn't hold its meetings on ships. And at best, it can only be near to a very small portion of the coast anyway.

donegaLroad

animaal wrote: »

I'm sure Cavan was considered a marginal constituency at the time

Not being a sea-faring person, I would guess that it doesn't matter much where it goes. The Dept of the Marine doesn't hold its meetings on ships. And at best, it can only be near to a very small portion of the coast anyway.

Maybe it was forward thinking.. with rising sea levels and coastal erosion, sooner or later, Cavan will be on the coast.

Gunmonkey

animaal wrote: »

I'm sure Cavan was considered a marginal constituency at the time

Not being a sea-faring person, I would guess that it doesn't matter much where it goes. The Dept of the Marine doesn't hold its meetings on ships. And at best, it can only be near to a very small portion of the coast anyway.

So what you are saying is....we should purchase an old oil tanker or freighter, refurbish it with offices and bunks and move the Dept of Marine there, circling the country forever!

I like it.

beauf

Biggest lickspittle on boardz wrote: »

It was an idea that could have transformed the economic landscape of Ireland, both rural and urban, if it had succeeded. Maybe it was ahead of its time, in some ways. But this was during the Celtic tiger, so people were probably more reluctant to move due to financial and lifestyle reasons. Dublin and the other cities were booming, so why move downwards? ....

The best problem was that is was hijacked by politicians and parish pumps so locations where chosen that weren't even on the national development plan.

Then after some people invested in moving they cancelled a lot of it, so people were left high and dry. Once bitten and all that.

The other issue that others have mentioned is the Govt have spend the years since centralizing lots of resources like hospitals and colleges in Dublin. The national children hospital is a classic example.

I think we've gone past the tipping point at which decentralization is an options anymore.

Would I move, yes. Will I? no. I'm too tied into resources that are in Dublin.

Biggest lickspittle on boardz

jonnycivic wrote: »

The costs alone of buying land and building offices etc would make this a complete non-runner at the moment i would imagine.

Not necessarily. Many towns around the country have empty sites that could be converted to office space, or even have turn key facilities just waiting for tenants. So these could be utilised. Buying land outright would be astronomical though. Maybe the many empty/rundown Dept. of Defence sites around the country could be used. If I recall correctly, planning permission isn't needed on Dept. of Defence land.

Ubbquittious wrote: »

They need to stop herding new businesses into Dublin when there's a cheaper, emptier spot available for them elsewhere. Of course the counter argument to that is usually that the specific breed of tech hipster they're trying to recruit refuses to live in rural Ireland and needs to be close to Starbucks & Craft beer pubs at all times.

I see where you're coming from, there can be an element of sneering towards rural Ireland. (Often from those who have migrated from rural areas.) But there are locations such as Clonakilty (I think?) that have become very successful IT hub towns in rural areas. So there should be an examination of what these towns have done right, and try to emulate them. Particularly in unemployment black spots.

Rumpy Pumpy wrote: »

They probably don't want to live in a place with bitter and resentful mucksavages who go through life with a huge chip on the shoulder.

I would say they aren't the only ones with chips on their shoulders, fella.

Dravokivich wrote: »

Won't work. Very few foreign companies looking to employ a body of people look far outside of Dublin and have publically stated this. They've reasons for this. If the Government and relevant planning bodies don't address those reasons, displacing civil servants won't get things sorted for that.

Well strictly speaking, decentralisation is concerned with government departments. Now, you are correct when you say that there are foreign companies that won't look outside Dublin. But that is only some of them. There are plenty, such as Apple in Cork and (formerly) Dell in Limerick who are happy to base themselves outside Dublin.
Furthermore, there would be plenty of other companies, domestic and foreign, who would strongly consider relocating if the right incentive was offered. Money is always the bottom line. If they are offered a lower tax status in return for a minimum contract of 10 years, I suspect many would take the offer. But there would have to be certain stipulations of course.

impega1 wrote: »

Decentralisation Part 2 - no way

I would propose the opposite and suggest re centralisation and move all Civil Servants out of locations and move us all lock stock and barrel to a new central spot - Curragh looks ideal - where all of the Civil Service could work a lot more closer together and would allow for mush easier mobility of staff from one Department or Agency to another.

This would include all offices in Dublin moving to this location therefore all policy/administration could be developed and implemented more easily. It would further benefit from Shared Resources, HR and Payroll already there and Financial Management next in line.

With the motorway and rail network it would be navigable to most people.

Decentralisation was a big failure - no matter how much it was glossed up.

The Curragh would still result in extreme demand for housing in Dublin. Most people would commute from their current Dublin locations, so there wouldn't really be any major benefits to the rest of the country. The idea is to spread the wealth across the country so that everyone benefits, not just the greater Dublin area.
Having said that, the original decentralisation was a failure, I'm not disputing that. But it definitely needs to be reconsidered again, the housing/accommodation market isn't just overheating anymore in Dublin; its in full meltdown now. So big ideas need to be seriously considered. The situation is completely different to what is was during the original plan.

beauf wrote: »

The best problem was that is was hijacked by politicians and parish pumps so locations where chosen that weren't even on the national development plan.

Then after some people invested in moving they cancelled a lot of it, so people were left high and dry. Once bitten and all that.

The other issue that others have mentioned is the Govt have spend the years since centralizing lots of resources like hospitals and colleges in Dublin. The national children hospital is a classic example.

I think we've gone past the tipping point at which decentralization is an options anymore.

Would I move, yes. Will I? no. I'm too tied into resources that are in Dublin.

Yes, the parish pump politics was one of the biggest problems with decentralisation. And as you correctly stated, some people were badly burned in the original debacle.
Interesting points too regarding the centralisation of resources, obviously these are major draws towards cites and urban areas. I'm not so sure about the tipping point, though. For every person who lives in Dublin and is happy with it, I'm sure you can find another who is sick to death of it and wants to move closer to home for whatever reason.
Anecdotally, I've noticed that a lot of my friends in the 28-35 bracket are utterly disillusioned with Dublin and are returning home to rural areas if they can get a job there. It's a subject I find quite interesting, and many people will admit that they feel 'conned' with Dublin life. They were expecting a great lifestyle, but ended up paying out most of their earnings on rent and travel, or were stuck in traffic half the time.

impega1

The Curragh would still result in extreme demand for housing in Dublin. Most people would commute from their current Dublin locations, so there wouldn't really be any major benefits to the rest of the country. The idea is to spread the wealth across the country so that everyone benefits, not just the greater Dublin area.

The idea of spreading the positions across the country to spread the wealth was one of the major flaws of decentralisation and was used a a gloss over by politicians and senior civil servants. By centralising the entire civil service in one location will benefit the country - less T&S, better use of monies through bulk orders, easy movement of staff.

Right maybe curragh was not the best example of location, however any location in Offaly, Laois or Westmeath would be ideal. There is ample rail and road networks. Already a big presence of CS in these areas and numbers from these areas commuting to or renting in Dublin is significant.

By moving these positions out of Dublin and to a centralised location would, free up housing stock in Dublin (not really sure if this is even part of a debate on decentralisation/centralisation). May even put downward pressure on prices.

ohnonotgmail

impega1 wrote: »

The idea of spreading the positions across the country to spread the wealth was one of the major flaws of decentralisation and was used a a gloss over by politicians and senior civil servants. By centralising the entire civil service in one location will benefit the country - less T&S, better use of monies through bulk orders, easy movement of staff.

Right maybe curragh was not the best example of location, however any location in Offaly, Laois or Westmeath would be ideal. There is ample rail and road networks. Already a big presence of CS in these areas and numbers from these areas commuting to or renting in Dublin is significant.

By moving these positions out of Dublin and to a centralised location would, free up housing stock in Dublin (not really sure if this is even part of a debate on decentralisation/centralisation). May even put downward pressure on prices.

to describe the rail network in those areas as "ample" is being incredibly generous.

Richard Hillman

There should be a concerted effort to create a true second city. The other "cities" are effectively just large towns. Whether it be Limerick, Cork or Galway, one of them needs to be actively chosen as the place to be the second city.

beauf

impega1 wrote: »

The idea of spreading the positions across the country to spread the wealth was one of the major flaws of decentralisation and was used a a gloss over by politicians and senior civil servants. By centralising the entire civil service in one location will benefit the country - less T&S, better use of monies through bulk orders, easy movement of staff....

The point was to distribute economic activity around the country. Not centralize the CS in a location outside of Dublin.

https://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0126/311538-decentralisation/

But it wasn't planned or costed properly. Which became very clear early on.

impega1

to describe the rail network in those areas as "ample" is being incredibly generous

Portarlington has a great service. Portlaoise has improved since arrow/commuter service was extended.

Tullamore - yes poor enough service.

However, if decision to centralise CS to an area around these locations was reached, it would not be unthinkable to add additional trains to meet demands.

Also road network to these areas are fairly decent

ohnonotgmail

impega1 wrote: »

Portarlington has a great service. Portlaoise has improved since arrow/commuter service was extended.

Tullamore - yes poor enough service.

However, if decision to centralise CS to an area around these locations was reached, it would not be unthinkable to add additional trains to meet demands.

Also road network to these areas are fairly decent

But the idea was not to centralise to another area. the idea was to decentralise. Moving the entire CS to a single area doesnt bring much in the way of benefits. well except if you happen to own office space in those areas.

keeponhurling

animaal wrote: »

donegaLroad wrote: »

What numbskull decided that Cavan would be a suitable location for the dept of Marine?

I'm sure Cavan was considered a marginal constituency at the time

Not being a sea-faring person, I would guess that it doesn't matter much where it goes. The Dept of the Marine doesn't hold its meetings on ships. And at best, it can only be near to a very small portion of the coast anyway.

the Marine Institute was decentralised from Dublin to Oranmore, Co. Galway

Grayson

Richard Hillman wrote: »

There should be a concerted effort to create a true second city. The other "cities" are effectively just large towns. Whether it be Limerick, Cork or Galway, one of them needs to be actively chosen as the place to be the second city.

Not just one city either. The economy grows fast enough here that we could easily expand one or two coastal cities and one midland one.

suicide_circus

The Big D? lulz

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

The Civil Service is having a rough time trying to attract potential employees to take certain roles in Dublin. Many CS roles could be decentralised, as was the plan for many years. Unless you're already Dublin based, moving to the capital to take on a job that pays 23 grand isn't feasible.

I think there is definitely scope for at least some decentralisation.

ednwireland

Ubbquittious wrote: »

They need to stop herding new businesses into Dublin when there's a cheaper, emptier spot available for them elsewhere. Of course the counter argument to that is usually that the specific breed of tech hipster they're trying to recruit refuses to live in rural Ireland and needs to be close to Starbucks & Craft beer pubs at all times.

the problem is that is proven not to work, similiar businesses dont want to locate away from other similiar businesses, you tend to find that they locate close to each other (hence the tech companies in dublin). they want a pool of like minded labour they can acquire as well.

as far as decentralisation goes it should have been continued with originally but not in the form it was presented as every minister no matter where they were from got a department. i mean social welfare going to donegal town. never saw the logic of that (and the claim in the decentralisation documents that its 3 hours from dublin, maybe in harneys air corp plane.

Biggest lickspittle on boardz

ednwireland wrote: »

the problem is that is proven not to work, similiar businesses dont want to locate away from other similiar businesses, you tend to find that they locate close to each other (hence the tech companies in dublin). they want a pool of like minded labour they can acquire as well.

as far as decentralisation goes it should have been continued with originally but not in the form it was presented as every minister no matter where they were from got a department. i mean social welfare going to donegal town. never saw the logic of that (and the claim in the decentralisation documents that its 3 hours from dublin, maybe in harneys air corp plane.

You would think the multinationals would get together and decide it is in their best interests to find a cheaper operating base, by which I mean a cheaper town or city.

Maybe if someone like Elon Musk breaks the mould and starts building his own town from the ground up, then that might spark a new decentralisation movement, so to speak. I think it would take someone big to popularise the idea first by bringing it into the public consciousness.

awec

Biggest lickspittle on boardz wrote: »

You would think the multinationals would get together and decide it is in their best interests to find a cheaper operating base, by which I mean a cheaper town or city.

Maybe if someone like Elon Musk breaks the mould and starts building his own town from the ground up, then that might spark a new decentralisation movement, so to speak. I think it would take someone big to popularise the idea first by bringing it into the public consciousness.

It's not really cheaper. The lack of infrastructure and talent is costly in the long run.

dresden8

Decentralisation was and is still is an epic clusterfnck.

The CS has never recovered from the loss of institutional knowledge.

fly_agaric

People are always on about how the govt. is "pushing" all jobs and investment at Dublin in these sort of threads. The govt. cannot force companies to set up outside Dublin if investing here. We don't have a state planned economy... Govt. can offer them encouragements to pick other locations through IDA supports etc. and afaik they do that, but this might not be enough. For foreign investment (which we have been relying on for alot of jobs since as far as I can remember) I think it is more likely to be Dublin vs some other city with 1m or greater population elsewhere in EU than Dublin vs Galway or vs town in rural Ireland that badly needs a jobs boost.

As regards decentralisation, public sector jobs are one aspect of the economy that the govt. has control over. One of our small cities as mentioned above should have been chosen and all of the decentralising departments sent there.
Perhaps a new capital should have been chosen also. That, combined with some infrastructure investment would give one of the cities a massive "shot in the arm" and possibly allow it to develop into a larger conurbation.

However that requires the govt. to choose just one city for this plan, and the electorate to accept that and both things are impossible in Ireland imo.
The original decentralisation scheme was mainly for vote buying with x jobs + construction projects for x town doled out graciously by the local "Big Man".
That is the kind of thing our electorate and politicians can get behind and understand, not a "real" decentralisation project that would require planning, strategy and difficult decisions.

screamer

Smart decentralisation yes. Forget moving your public sector offices..... Build hubs for similar industries in towns where we have ITs so that they can partner up with the colleges to ensure they have a great pipeline of employees.....and as I said, specialise. It's very possible for IT companies for example to exist beside each other and with a good pool of people to draw from each other it can work.
Also put in high speed bullet Train station and be done with it. Commuting will be a huge part of rural life forever so just get on with it and give people choice and a bit of work life balance....

Spanish Eyes

I wouldn't live anywhere other than Dublin now. It's brilliant. But then again I own my own house outright and can walk into town.

From memory the last phase of decentralisation was to Limerick (huge), Wexford and I forget where else but I am sure I will be told.

Looked to me at the time that it was a great opportunity for those with connections around those areas to go back home. And it seems to have worked quite well.

But ask anyone who is settled in Dublin to up sticks and go down the country, I don't think so.

Might work for newbies in the CS though. If you get the job you have to settle in X or Y, thems the breaks.

I dunno, Dublin is the Capital and certain functions of State need to be there, because the Dail, Senate and backup (ahem troubleshooting) civil servants are within walking distance of TDs in need of help.

Non essential services could be moved I suppose. But I am not sure that there is much stomach for it at the moment. We will see.

Ubbquittious

fly_agaric wrote: »

People are always on about how the govt. is "pushing" all jobs and investment at Dublin in these sort of threads. The govt. cannot force companies to set up outside Dublin if investing here. We don't have a state planned economy... Govt. can offer them encouragements to pick other locations through IDA supports etc. and afaik they do that, but this might not be enough. For foreign investment (which we have been relying on for alot of jobs since as far as I can remember) I think it is more likely to be Dublin vs some other city with 1m or greater population elsewhere in EU than Dublin vs Galway or vs town in rural Ireland that badly needs a jobs boost.

As regards decentralisation, public sector jobs are one aspect of the economy that the govt. has control over. One of our small cities as mentioned above should have been chosen and all of the decentralising departments sent there.
Perhaps a new capital should have been chosen also. That, combined with some infrastructure investment would give one of the cities a massive "shot in the arm" and possibly allow it to develop into a larger conurbation.

However that requires the govt. to choose just one city for this plan, and the electorate to accept that and both things are impossible in Ireland imo.
The original decentralisation scheme was mainly for vote buying with x jobs + construction projects for x town doled out graciously by the local "Big Man".
That is the kind of thing our electorate and politicians can get behind and understand, not a "real" decentralisation project that would require planning, strategy and difficult decisions.

AFAIK there are some incentives for setting up shop in the IFSC for financial companies. Could be wrong though but that was the word on the street

hytrogen

keeponhurling wrote:

the Marine Institute was decentralised from Dublin to Oranmore, Co. Galway

But sure who wants to hear from a bunch of hairy nerds with their glorified fish finders? :P

hytrogen

screamer wrote:

Smart decentralisation yes. Forget moving your public sector offices..... Build hubs for similar industries in towns where we have ITs so that they can partner up with the colleges to ensure they have a great pipeline of employees.....and as I said, specialise. It's very possible for IT companies for example to exist beside each other and with a good pool of people to draw from each other it can work. Also put in high speed bullet Train station and be done with it. Commuting will be a huge part of rural life forever so just get on with it and give people choice and a bit of work life balance....

Aah but as we've been reading about with the cluster fup of CIT/UCC in the MERC decentralising centres out to back orafaces can quite easily be forgotten, mismanaged and dejected, thus proving we cannot depend on our education institutional governance anymore for reliable graduates and project coordination. That took a significant dip in our future energy's market when it broke in the news..