It was the big idea in the December 2003 Budget. The relocation of 10,000 civil and public servants from 60 different departments and agencies to 53 different locations in 23 counties. As finance minister, Charlie McCreevy was credited with a political masterstroke. The towns chosen were delighted. Fianna Fail and Progressive Democrat politicians crowed about the government delivering 'goodies' for their localities.

As the minister in charge of the state's property portfolio, Parlon seized responsibility for decentralisation after its initial announcement. It became his baby. Three years on, however, McCreevy is ensconced in Brussels as European Commissioner and Parlon has been left behind, increasingly associated with a troubled big idea.

For several weeks now the government has been readying the ground for a climbdown on parts of its controversial decentralisation programme. A fortnight ago, the Taoiseach signalled the need for a rethink. Last week, the Tanaiste said there was a need for more "imagination" on the issue.

Two hundred state employees also picketed Parlon's offices in Dublin last week as the relocation controversy popped its head up at the stalled 350m in hidden costs for ailing plan Martin Frawley STAFF training, travel expenses, hotel accommodation, new IT equipment and recruitment campaigns will all add an extra 350m to the cost of the Government's ailing decentralisation plan.

This is on top of the 1bn it will take to build or rent new offices to house the 10,200 public servants who are set to move out of the capital to 53 towns around the country.

The 350m hidden cost of decentralisation is based on an estimate by the Prison Service of the typical add-on costs of moving 158 staff from Dublin to Longford by early 2005. It puts these costs at a maximum of 5.7m, including almost 5m on a redesign of the Prison computer network and new telecommunications links back to Dublin. Training costs and staff time were estimated at 455,000 while lost productivity due to disruption was estimated at 60,000.

The Government's decentralisation plan will present a final 2 billion bill. This does not include any inducement to staff to move. The Department of Finance, has repeatedly ruled out any compensation payments. At an average of 1,000 a mile in the private sector, relocation payments to 10,000 public servants would cost the exchequer hundreds of millions. Travel and subsistence costs is another major hidden cost of decentralisation as senior public servants have to travel to Dublin for weekly strategy meetings. Travel costs for the the 30,000 civil servants will cost 67m in 2006 and is conservatively expected to leap to 100m post-decentralisation.

talks on a new national partnership agreement.

The unofficial industrial action at Fas has been most embarrassing of all for Parlon . . . the agency is supposed to be going to Birr in Co Offaly. That's the heart of Parlon Country. The PD minister probably wishes he could quietly crawl back to his Laois/Offaly constituency and never again hear the word 'decentralisation'.

Parlon holds one of the few plum junior ministries. Unlike most other junior minister positions, responsibility for the Office of Public Works is a real job. Parlon is seen as hardworking and on top of his brief. He also likes the spotlight and the decentralisation programme has given him the opportunity to carve out an unusually high profile for a second-tier minister who is a member of the smaller party in government. While it would be unfair if Parlon took all the blame for the current mess, fairness sometimes does not come into politics, and this mess has happened on his watch.

Few on the opposition benches actually oppose the relocation concept. They criticise the fact that the current programme has been poorly thought out and badly executed. No cost-benefit analysis has ever been done. Nobody knows the real costs involved or has any idea what will be the permanent change produced in how officialdom works.

"We need more information from the minister of state's department rather than the PR spin we are receiving, " Fine Gael's Richard Bruton says.

Each department has a decentralisation implementation group. If staff don't want to move out of Dublin, alternative options are to be made available. As Parlon said recently, "if a person is in the Department of Agriculture and chooses to stay in Dublin, he or she can sign up to move to the Departments of Social and Family Affairs, Defence or whatever." One of the real problems, however, involves specialist staff or, as Richard Bruton puts it, "the mappers cannot be moved from the Ordnance Survey of Ireland."

In addition to this issue, employees in State agencies like Fas have different terms of employment and conditions to civil servants in the various government departments. Few of these staff want to move. If they worked in the private sector they wouldn't have a choice but state employees work by different rules. Richard Bruton took some pleasure recently in reading the troubled list out in Parlon's presence at an Oireachtas committee meeting.

"Not one person in Bord Iascaigh Mhara or Failte Ireland wants to move and only one of 90 in the National Roads Authority, two out of 100 in the Public Appointments Service, five out of 100 in the Valuation Office, nine out of 110 in the Health and Safety Authority, 15 out of 210 in the Ordnance Survey and 19 out of 300 in Enterprise Ireland are willing to move with their jobs."

Parlon has been taking the flak for the decentralisation problems for some time now. He's fought a decent battle but it has been a losing one. "There is an issue to mobility and transferability within State agencies which is a difficulty that must be worked out. It is an aspect on which unions are quite tetchy, " Parlon admitted last month. Last week some union representatives struck back. "I've spoken to many a plank in my day but this was the thickest plank I've ever had to deal with, " one Impact trade union member bluntly said of a meeting with the minister. Parlon meets the Impact leadership again on Tuesday.

Prior to the last general election, Parlon toyed with which political party he would join. Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and the PDs all sought his services.

They were attracted by his high profile term as President of the Irish Farmers' Association. Fianna Fail, however, did not have a vacancy in Parlon's preferred constituency. He kept Fine Gael guessing right up until the Sunday afternoon in January 2002 when he opted for the PDs. In the end, he took a Fine Gael seat but now Charlie Flanagan, who lost out in 2002, is preparing for a re-match. Parlon is one of four government TDs in Laois/Offaly . . .

Fianna Fail have three seats to the PDs' one.

For some time the opposition have enjoyed poking fun at the PD minister. Fine Gael have settled a few old scores. Their 'Cowboy Parlon' posters at the 2002 European and local elections raised more than a few smiles. If Fine Gael is to regain a second seat in Parlon Country it will probably have to come at Parlon's expense. The ultimate irony may well be if he is the one who is decentralised from Dail Eireann back to his home in Birr.

DECENTRALISATION IS A MIXED BAG FOR PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS

GIVEN that almost half of the public servants who are earmarked to move out of the capital have yet to sign up, the five main public sector unions are similarly split in attitude towards decentralisation.

FOR 1. Civil and Public Service Union (CPSU) representing almost 20,000 clerical staff.

The most supportive of the unions, its lower graded members have most to gain from possible promotional opportunities presented by decentralisation.

"We know the reality is that not only have our grades been enthusiastic supporters but they are oversubscribed for most locations" . . . Blair Horan, general secretary CPSU.

2. Public Service Executive Union representing around 12,000 middle managers.

Not as enthused as the CPSU, but the PSEU believes that as long as it remains voluntary and nobody is denied promotional opportunities if they don't want to move, then it's up to the individual.

"The union is committed to protecting the interests of all its members, those who wish to remain in Dublin, those who wish to decentralise and those already located outside Dublin" . . . Patricia Tobin PSEU President.

AGAINST 3. IMPACT representing almost 60,000 mainly professional and technical public servants.

Increasingly opposed, the union said that just 15% of specialised staff have volunteered to move.

"Decentralisation will increase costs and damage services, because specialised experienced staff who do not want to move cannot be replaced" . . . Louise O'Donnell, Impact.

4. Association of Higher Civil and Public servants (AHCPS), representing around 5,000 senior public service management.

While stating it has no principled objection, with little to gain from a move, the vast majority of its members have failed to sign up.

"The concept of ministers sitting alone in splendid isolation in Dublin, while their senior policy advisers are scattered like the four winds across the country, fundamentally undermines the concept of joined up Government and is seriously detrimental to the public interest" . . .

AHCPS general secretary Sean O'Riordain.

5. SIPTU, representing almost 200,000 workers, of whom around 50,000 are in the public sector agencies most virulently opposed to decentralisation.

President Jack O'Connor raised the ante considerably last week when he said that the disputes over decentralisation in Fas and Enterprise Ireland would be another issue for the national pay talks.

"We want the full removal of all non-commercial states agencies from the Government's "awed, illogical and ill-conceived decentralisation plan" . . . Michael Halpenny, SIPTU.