Hazzard welcomes Plans for Downpatrick Civil Service Hub.
Sinn Féin’s Chris Hazzard MP has welcomed confirmation from the Finance Minister Conor Murphy that Downpatrick’s Rathkeltair House will become a Civil Service Hub in the Spring when Covid-19 restrictions allow.
The South Down MP said: “This is very positive news for those civil service workers locally who want the opportunity to combine working from home with the traditional office experience enabling them to have a much more attractive work life balance as we start to build back better from the Covid-19 pandemic.
“For many years now we have known that more than a third of all civil service workers live outside the greater Belfast area, with many coming from the Downpatrick and the wider east Down area.
“So this opportunity to be located in Downpatrick will not only have obvious benefits for those workers who will no longer have to commute, but the local hub will also create a much welcome spin-off for our local town centre economy here in Downpatrick.”
Mr Hazzard added: “Sinn Fein remain committed to the decentralisation of public sector jobs, indeed when we recently relocated the Fisheries Office to Downpatrick more than 1000 local public sector workers expressed an interest to be relocated.
“So we will continue to look for opportunities to decentralise public services wherever possible.”
