The Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Mr O'Donoghue, has said he will personally oversee the transfer of his departmental headquarters to Killarney which he expects to take place within three years.
There is already some speculation locally that a listed gothic-style psychiatric hospital building may be one of the first locations to be looked at by the OPW.
Although there will be an overall implementation team, chaired by the Department of Finance, Mr O'Donoghue said he would take a direct role himself in the transfer.
"Clearly in relation to the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism where I am Minister myself, I will be overseeing the transfer of this Department to Killarney," Mr O'Donoghue said on Radio Kerry's Today programme.
He had no precise premises in mind for the transfer of the 165 civil servants, including some 40 from the sports council.
"It is my intention to ensure that it happens before I leave office and I will be doing everything possible I can to achieve that," he said.
The transfer should take around three years.
Mr O'Donoghue was basing his predictions on the timeframe between the announcement of the transfer of the Legal Aid Board to his home town of Cahersiveen in 1998 and the time it took to acquire a site, build a new premises and have the civil servants in place in 2001.
He said that he did not believe there would be negative reaction from the unions.
"Things have changed in Ireland," he said.
It was no longer necessary to be in Dublin in order to be in the centre of things.
The world had become a smaller place with video conferencing and such.
Killarney has lost a large number of manufacturing jobs in recent years.
It has also lost many nursing jobs with the relocation of acute psychiatric services from St Finan's psychiatric hospital in Killarney to Tralee.