The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, has said the transfer of 10,000 civil servants out of Dublin will be completed by 2007.
The Minister announced plans in yesterday's budget to decentralise eight Departments, and the Office of Public Works, which will all move out of Dublin by 2007.
Rejecting charges that the selection of the 53 towns had ignored the Government's own National Spatial Strategy, Mr McCreevy said the project will be largely self-financing.
"I believe that over time decentralisation will lead to a radical change of culture. No longer will policy be made entirely in Dublin on the basis of a Dublin mindset," he told the Dáil.
Mr McCreevy said the plan will help improve the quality of life of civil servants and would help rural towns prosper.
He said staff will transfer voluntarily but also said there would be space in the system for those who did not wish to leave the capital city.