Sir, - I refer to your newspaper's coverage (The Irish Times, September 22nd) in relation to the impact assessment report on the relocation of the Legal Aid Board to Cahirciveen. In the interests of balance and accuracy, the Minister would wish to point out the following facts.
Firstly, the impact assessment report, produced by the board's own senior management, concluded unequivocally that the bulk of the functions of the board's head office could function effectively from Cahirciveen subject to the provision of a small number of additional staff and IT support. These functions, which are currently discharged by 36 staff based in Dublin, include legal services, finance, organisation and personnel records and administration.
Secondly, the report concluded that a small Dublin base (nine staff) would continue to be required to deal with certain functions identified in the report which include management of the Refugee Legal Service and of law centres, liaison with external bodies, personnel policy and industrial relations. It was agreed, following discussions between the Minister and the board, that these functions would not be transferred to Cahirciveen.
In the circumstances, the headlines which accompanied your newspaper's report were misleading and completely distorted the actual content of the impact assessment report.
As a matter of record, it is also the case that the Legal Aid Board has formally conveyed to the Minister its agreement with the conclusions of the impact assessment report that 36 staff could be transferred to Cahirciveen without disruption to the services provided by the board.
Finally, in relation to costs, contrary to what is asserted in the article, there is no reference in the impact assessment report to the relocation costing "hundreds of thousands of pounds in mileage and other expenses as staff travel between Dublin and Cahirciveen". In reality, as the report itself acknowledges, the availability of modern communications technology, including video conferencing, will obviate the need for excessive travelling by staff members between Dublin and Kerry. Neither does the impact assessment report state that union representatives have indicated that they would not be willing to travel to Cahirciveen with a resultant time costing for the personnel staff travelling to these meetings in Dublin. In any event, this will not arise as it has been decided not to relocate the personnel policy and industrial relations functions to Cahirciveen. - Yours, etc.,
Tony Cotter, Press & Information Officer, Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, St Stephen's Green, Dublin 2.
Carol Coulter writes: It is true that there is no reference in the impact assessment to the estimated cost of the move, but there is a chart comparing distances and travel times between the various centres and Cahirciveen and Dublin.