The Government's decentralisation plan is being hampered by the failure to agree a deal to let State employees transfer freely between the civil service and semi-State agencies.
In its latest report, the Government's Decentralisation Implementation Group said "little progress" has been made in union/management talks "on allowing both public and civil service staff to transfer into State bodies from the civil service and other State bodies and vice versa.
"Resolution of the outstanding issues is central to the overall implementation process in the State agencies," said the implementation group, which is now chaired by Finbarr Flood.
The warning comes after the disclosure that the State will have to find new jobs for 6,000 civil servants and semi-State employees in Dublin once decentralisation is complete as the numbers applying for transfers are so low.
Once decentralisation is completed, however, it now emerges that 3,500 civil servants and 2,600 semi-State employees will be surplus to current staffing needs because their jobs will have transferred though they have not.
Following the changes, for example, there will be 2,737 clerical officer-grade jobs in Dublin-based civil service offices though over 3,800 have made it clear that they want to stay.
Some 2,000 higher executive officers will be available to fill 1,340 jobs.
The Flood implementation group said it recognised "that proposals for inter-organisational mobility go against traditional employment practices.
"In our view it is precisely this type of ground-breaking initiative which is needed to give impetus to the implementation of the programme. Departments and agencies should engage with the unions to see what initiatives could be taken to advance this issue."
The Office of Public Works has promised that 14 more offices will be finished in 2007, 12 more in 2008 and 15 in 2009. Properties have been identified for all of the transfers due by the end of 2006.
Meanwhile, the Government is still short of applications.
"Figures from the Central Applications Facility show that staff volunteering to move in their own grade to early-mover locations will not in many cases provide sufficient staff for these organisations."
The Department of Finance, which is currently in negotiations with trade unions, now seems ready to offer promotions to get staff to move.
The number of specialists applying to move, such as technical staff in the Ordnance Survey, is even lower.
This problem is not helped by the fact that such staff cannot move to offices where their grade is not represented.
Meanwhile, the Government is still short of applications to fill key IT posts in units of the Department of Health and the Revenue Commissioners that are being moved out of Dublin.
In a bid to fill the vacancies, the Department of Finance has proposed that staff currently working in other jobs would be able to apply for IT jobs following "aptitude-testing, interviewing and certified ICT training".
However, the implementation group warned: "We understand that there are some difficulties with the approach, which will have to be advanced through further discussion and dialogue".
Minister for Finance Brian Cowen said the implementation group's report was "further evidence of progress".
Conscious that the original 2006 deadline could not now be met, he said: "It was clear from an early stage that the issues which surfaced would take a considerable period to resolve, but the setting of ambitious targets was the best way to drive forward the programme."
