Madam, - In a conversation on Morning Ireland yesterday with Dr Edward Walsh on the subject of decentralisation, Mr Tom Parlon, Minister of State for Finance, asserted that it was just as easy for Ministers to keep in touch with each other when they were 50 miles apart as when they were working in the same city. Modern forms of communication, he said, would ensure this.
Now, if anyone knows anything about modern forms of communication it is Dr Walsh, former president of the University of Limerick, and perhaps the pioneer of education in such matters in this State. Yet he believes that when it came to making crucial decisions there was no substitute for face-to-face communication, and he gave as an example the recent attempt to complete the details of the European constitution.
This had been achieved, he said, not by Ministers sending each other e-mails, but by face-to-face conversation.
The Government has come up up with no convincing reason for its decentralisation plan. Surely the only justifiable reason could be making government more efficient - not, as it seems at the moment, making Dublin slightly less congested, with fewer civil servants working there, or boosting the kudos of Ministers who manage to get Government Departments located in their constituencies. - Yours, etc.,
MICHAEL NUTTALL,
Galty Edge,
Anglesborough,
Co Limerick.
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Madam, - Regarding Chris Dooley's article on decentralisation in your edition of June 29th - bravo! Some common sense at last.
The electorate may not care if civil servants have their lives turned upside down, but they certainly will feel differently when vast amounts of public money are squandered on a plan that will result in a worse service.
Is there one single Government Minister capable of acting in the public interest? If so, their time is now. - Yours, etc.,
SUZANNE RYAN,
Balally Terrace,
Sandyford Road,
Dublin 16.