The Government yesterday rejected Opposition attempts to hold an Oireachtas hearing into the plans to transfer 10,000 civil servants out of Dublin.
Under a plan proposed separately by Fine Gael and Sinn Féin, the Oireachtas Committee on Finance and the Public Service would have heard several days of evidence from key figures, including the head of the group tasked with delivering the plan, Mr Phil Flynn.
The Oireachtas committee would also have heard testimony from trade union leaders, management experts and deputies Mr Richard Bruton (Fine Gael) and Mr Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Sinn Féin).
In a bid to win over the support of the Government deputies at the committee, Labour TD Ms Joan Burton suggested the hearings would take place after the local and European elections on June 11th.
During bad-tempered exchanges, Fianna Fáil TDs Mr Ned O'Keeffe and Mr Conor Lenihan accused the Opposition of being against the decentralisation plan.
Insisting that the time for discussion had gone, the committee chairman, Fianna Fáil's Mr Seán Fleming, imposed a whip, and the proposal was rejected by 8-6 despite Opposition protests.
The chairman's decision to impose a whipped vote would have been cleared with higher Government figures, though Mr Fleming could not be contacted last night to verify if he had been ordered to block hearings by the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy.
Last night, a furious Mr Bruton told The Irish Times: "Governments have a right to make decisions, but they must not become so intoxicated with their own invincibility that they cast aside procedures built up over generations.
"The decentralisation agenda has never been debated in the Dáil. No Government memorandum has accompanied it. No business case has been presented for it. No risk assessment of the effect on any of the agencies has been presented.
"No human resource plan has been developed. No proper assessment of the financial implications has been presented. None of the selected locations has been justified against criteria for successful regionalisation," he said.
"No answer has been given to those who fear a huge loss of 'organisational memory'. No answer has been given to those who say that the dispersal of a majority of ministries across the countryside runs counter to international best-practice.
"It is now clear that the introduction of decentralisation through the budget was a conscious act designed to bypass the systems of scrutiny established to protect the public from ill-considered decisions," said Fine Gael's finance spokesman.
Speaking to The Irish Times, Mr Ó Caoláin said the Government's decision to stop the hearings from going ahead was "outrageous".
"Decentralisation is the biggest issue facing the public service in decades. This is the Oireachtas Committee on Finance and the Public Service. Fianna Fáil has censored the Oireachtas committee that is charged with responsibility for scrutiny of all matters to do with the public service.
"Fianna Fáil has censored the committee by today whipping their members into voting down the proposal to prioritise the issue, and devote time to it after the elections.
"The Government are running scared of the issue, and do not want to discuss the difficulties now being faced by them in delivering their promised decentralisation of 10,000 civil servants.
"Their solution is to gag the committee. It is outrageous. It is nothing less than censorship," said the Cavan/Monaghan TD.
