When it comes to decentralisation, there is a fundamental difference between policy formulation and policy implementation. By proposing to move Departmental Headquarters, Minister McCreevy’s proposals carry the risk of fracturing the policy-making apparatus of the civil service. What Fianna Fáil are proposing will not bring Government closer to the people. It will simply fracture the central Government and scatter it in a manner determined only by the pattern of transfers in a few marginal seats at the last election. Commenting on earlier decentralisation to Ministers’ own constituencies, The Tanaiste, May Harney, insisted that future decentralisation ‘should not generate a repeat of the earlier behaviour of three Fianna Fáil Ministers’ and warned against ‘using a scattergun approach’.

There is a reason why every country in Europe has a capital city. It provides for mobility among policy-making staff, develops career structure, and above all facilitates easy interaction among key policymakers. There are literally hundreds of interdepartmental committees or boards on which civil servants sit as representatives of their Ministers, most of which currently operate with no major travel requirements on the part of the staff involved. The plans outlined by Minister McCreevy will fracture decision-making. It will also Balkanise Departments, restricting staff mobility between them. The capacity for inter-departmental transfer won’t exist at all within some agencies of State. Last week’s proposals will introduce a new element of inefficiency into a system which should be focusing itself on reform and greater efficiency.

The economic benefit of decentralisation can still be achieved by confining the jobs moved to staff engaged in policy implementation. As well as the long-run risks, there is also the short-term cost of disruption to the public service. The civil service faces enough challenges at present, including the forthcoming European Presidency, without the fundamental dislocation which decentralisation would involve. Any number of key personnel would need to be shifted between Departments and between jobs within Departments. People will have to learn new jobs as they relocate families and find new homes. Many staff with specialised skills who do not wish to move may be lost to the service. Given the timescale involved, the disruption to both policy formation and implementation are potentially huge. It may be that Parlon delivers, but what will the civil service deliver when Fianna Fáil and the PDs have finished with it?

One of the themes I have regularly spoken on in recent months is the need for public service reform. Labour is a party in the mainstream of European Social democracy, which believes in high quality public service. That means we have to properly fund public services, but we will not persuade the public to do that unless we can demonstrate that the public service can deliver value for money. There is a reform process of sorts on-going within the civil service, under the title of the strategic management initiative. It is not moving fast enough, and it is not breaking down enough of the old barriers. The decentralisation proposals as announced will put that whole agenda on the backburner for years.

There is an important human side to this. All over Ireland, there are towns who are hoping to get a boost from decentralisation. All over Dublin, there are people who are hoping to go, and who will put their lives on hold while they wait to hear if they can move. Fianna Fáil are engaged in a cruel deceit of these people. Equally, there are loyal public servants in Dublin, who have given years of service to their Departments and agencies, through thick and thin, who are now being told that if they want to keep the job they are in, they have to up-root the whole family and move somewhere determined only by a political whim.

This decentralisation package wasn’t planned or thought through, despite years of prevarication by the Minister for Finance on the issue. If it fails, it will set back the cause of balanced regional development. At the same time, its ham-fisted approach threatens to do untold damage to the fabric of Government. It is a desperate stroke from a jaded Government, whose day has gone.

As a country, we cannot afford to drift along, bereft of any social or economic vision. Labour offers the vision of a Fair Society, based on sustainable development, social justice and personal liberty. The Fair Society will only be built on a successful economy, which is why I believe it is essential to foster enterprise and encourage innovation. As a society we must invest in new physical capital, in roads, public transport, broadband and a range of other areas. But we must also invest in human capital – in education for people of all ages, and in training. There is no place in the fair society for the kind of social division, which abandons a whole segment of our population, confines them to the welfare rolls, cuts back the services on which they depend, and squeezes their incomes. There is an alternative. One which Labour is determined to build.

To read the full text of Pat Rabbitte's speech click here