Plans for FÁS in Birr are scrapped

Fourteen FÁS workers based in Birr are expected to leave the town by the end of April, with the lease on the organisation's temporary home in Birr Technology Centre coming to an end in the middle of the next month. Though it had been expected locally for some time, the closure of the FÁS decentralised office in Birr was approved by the Cabinet on Wednesday. The news has been received locally as disappointing but not surprising. Birr's relationship with a decentralised FÁS office began in 2004, when the organisation agreed to pay €1.5m for a 5.59 acre site in the town. That site remains undeveloped, and at a Public Account Committee in late 2010 the then assistant director general for finance and information technology in FÁS Conor Dunne admitted the organisation didn't know what to do with the site. Since 2007 a small advance party of FÁS workers have been based in Birr Technology Centre. Plans for a total workforce of almost 400 to decentralise to Birr came to naught, faced first with worker reluctance and then postponement by the government until this latest review. Instead of welcoming additional workers to the town, Birr will now instead wave goodbye to the skeleton staff based in the FÁS office there. Speaking to the Offaly Independent chairperson of Birr town council Cllr Noel Russell said the latest news is "the final nail". "Maybe when decentralisation started we thought it was going to be the answer to all our prayers in Birr but it wasn't to be," he said. President of the local Chamber of Commerce Martin Kearns said it's unfortunate that Birr is losing out. "It's a pity to see it happening but it was never going to work," he said, adding that as a Chamber he and his colleagues were expecting the news but perhaps not quite so soon. Meanwhile independent Birr councillor John Carroll said he hopes the government will look at bringing a similar number of jobs to Birr as the ones lost with the withdrawal of FÁS. "The IDA hasn't looked at Birr at all for investment since the 1980s. There is a need for investment in Birr," he said. Maria Walshe from the FÁS communications unit confirmed today (Friday) all staff will move from Birr by mid-year. She said Tullamore will be the main location for staff moving from the Birr office, though the organisation is working with staff regarding arrangements.