With the second deadline for civil servants to opt to transfer out of Dublin passing next Wednesday, there are already fears that few extra applications, particularly from specialist staff, have been received.
The Central Applications Facility should have closed to applications on July 8th, but the timetable was extended to September 7th following a poor response from civil servants and staff working for State agencies.
A breakdown of the figures is unlikely to be ready immediately after the closure of the application period following a dispute over the presentation of the previous round of statistics in July.
One union, IMPACT, warned at the weekend that few extra specialist staff have come forward to apply, threatening the entire plan. "As a result, inefficiencies, extra costs and severe service shortfalls remain likely unless the Government reviews the decentralisation programme," said IMPACT official Mr Bernard Harbor.
He said the transfer of the Irish Prison Service from its Clondalkin headquarters to Longford would bring the service closer to 300 prisoners, but further away from 3,000 more.
"Highly-experienced prison service professionals, including psychologists, educationalists and health professionals, are unwilling to move."
Just 7 per cent of the staff - 11 out of 158 - based in Clondalkin has so far expressed a willingness to move, which, prison management has warned, could affect operations.
IMPACT official Mr Pat Bolger said the headquarter's location was critical because specialist staff must be able to reach all main prisons quickly.
"The choice of Clondalkin as a headquarters location was approved by the current administration just three years ago because it is geographically well placed to serve prisons throughout the State. Nothing has changed since then.
"Ready access to prisons, where professionals and specialists spend most of their time, is an essential factor in the efficient functioning of psychological, educational and healthcare services.
"Longford's distance from most prison complexes will inevitably mean poorer services, unnecessary ongoing costs and inefficiencies."
He warned that experienced staff would be lost if decentralisation goes ahead. "There are serious and long-standing national skills shortages in many of these professions, and appropriately-qualified and experienced people will be very difficult to source in Longford."
Demanding an urgent review of the entire plan, IMPACT's national secretary, Mr Peter Nolan, said the transfer of specialist staff presented "unique and insurmountable problems".
"They can't be replaced by non-specialist public servants if they choose to remain in Dublin, and national and local labour markets are unable to fill the gap. Organisations for which decentralisation is clearly impractical should be removed from the programme immediately."
The Central Applications Facility was launched by the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, on May 12th, who said officials who applied by July 8th would enjoy priority over later-comers. However, the Government later extend the deadline until September 7th. It rejected charges that it was doing so because of the poor response.
The Civil Service Commission will analyse the new round of applications, and offer a breakdown on the number of staff, their grades and their preferred locations.
