Almost half of the applications for Civil Service posts under decentralisation are from staff already based outside Dublin who are looking to move to another provincial location.
This means that the Government faces a "massive" problem filling the jobs currently held by these applicants, the union representing senior civil and public servants claimed yesterday.
A report presented to the annual conference in Dublin of the Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants stated that of the 7,170 applications for decentralised posts received by June last year, 3,307 were from staff already working outside Dublin.
These had "simply applied to move from one existing provincial location to another newly-decentralised location".
The report added: "It is noteworthy that only 660 staff have applied to fill these 3,307 positions, with the result that there is now a backfilling problem of massive proportions."
The association called for an immediate review of the decentralisation programme, under which some 10,300 public service jobs are to be moved from Dublin.
The union said it had originally estimated that 15 per cent of staff in Dublin would be prepared to move with their jobs to decentralised locations, but the true figure was lower than 10 per cent.
The outgoing secretary-general, Seán Ó Ríordáin, said that the union recognised the benefits of a "well-thought-out and rational" programme of decentralisation, but the current programme contained "fatal flaws".