The Government is considering a preference system for civil servants applying for transfer to places outside Dublin in order to maximise the take-up of the controversial public service decentralisation scheme.
Under the scheme public servants seeking a move from the capital would rank locations in order of preference, just as applicants for third-level college places do through the Central Applications Office (CAO).
The proposal has been made by the implementation group set up by the Government to steer the decentralisation programme and was circulated in a memo to decentralisation liaison officers in each Government Department a fortnight ago.
According to the memo, a copy of which has been seen by The Irish Times, the implementation committee has asked the Department of Finance to consider such an integrated transfer system.
"A system of this nature would allow for the more orderly movement of the required number of staff across the public service", it says. The proposal comes amid concern over the growing evidence that staff across Government Departments and agencies are reluctant to move in sufficient numbers outside the capital.
The memo also reports that the Office of Public Works received more than 680 responses to the advertisement in national newspapers last December seeking possible locations for decentralised Departments and offices.
The announcement yesterday by the Minister for Marine, Mr Ahern, that 90 of his Department's staff would be moved to Clonakilty was seen by political observers yesterday as an effort to show that the Government's decentralisation programme was maintaining momentum.
The announcement comes ahead of a special delegate conference on decentralisation next Monday being held by the Association of Higher Civil Servants. The association says the agenda "reflects the widespread concern of key managers in the Civil Service and in State agencies at aspects of the Government's decentralisation programme."