Tánaiste and Minister for Finance Brian Cowen has ordered all semi-State agencies to engage to see what alternative career opportunities can be provided for staff who do not want to relocate under the Government's decentralisation programme.
Mr Cowen insisted yesterday that while he accepted this week's Labour Court ruling that promotions in State bodies should not be made conditional on moving out of Dublin, the Government would forge ahead with its decentralisation plan.
"We will look at State bodies generally and engage to see what career alternatives can be provided for some people who don't want to relocate," he said in his first formal response to the ruling.
Under the decentralisation programme, civil servants who don't want to move can apply under a central system to be relocated in Dublin. But no such facility exists for those working in semi-State companies.
Siptu, the union which represents staff at 16 non-commercial semi-State agencies, said last night it will meet next week to consider the implications of the Labour Court ruling that Fás could not link staff promotions to those willing to decentralise.
Siptu's Dublin regional secretary, Patricia King, who represents almost 1,600 members in the agencies concerned, said she acknowledged the Minister's acceptance of the Labour Court in relation to Fás "as a positive step towards resolving the problem".
She said she would be meeting Siptu representatives from Fás and all the other agencies affected by decentralisation next Thursday and did not want to comment further on the substantive issues until then.
However, she said she saw the outcome of the Fás dispute as a vindication of the campaign the union conducted against decentralisation of highly specialised agencies over the past 18 months.
"No operational rationale has ever been produced to justify such a potentially disruptive plan and expensive proposal for the taxpayer," she said.
In its judgement the Labour Court said staff applying for promotions at Fás had the right to be judged on suitability and merit alone. The ruling followed a case taken by Siptu on behalf of staff in Fás who are unhappy with the agency's plan to relocate from Dublin to its proposed new headquarters in Birr, Co Offaly.
The court said decentralisation of State bodies could not be handled in the same way as in the Civil Service, because of the difficulty of staff transferring to a different agency if they chose to stay in Dublin.
Mr Cowen said yesterday it was always recognised by the Decentralisation Implementation Group that there were particular issues for the State bodies in progressing decentralisation at the same pace as the Civil Service because of the size and nature of the individual organisations.
Meanwhile, Fine Gael deputy leader Richard Bruton called for a review of the decentralisation programme, describing Mr Cowen's response as "a cop-out".
Fianna Fáil Ministers were now trying to wash their hands of decentralisation, he added.