A number of Government Department secretaries general - the State's top civil servants - have raised reservations about plans to move over 10,000 civil and public servants out of Dublin. Mark Hennessy, Political Correspondent, reports.
The senior officials were only told by the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, of his decentralisation plans on Monday afternoon - less than 48 hours before his Budget speech, The Irish Times has learned.
The late notification by the Minister raises questions about the planning that has gone into the State's biggest-ever decentralisation programme, due to be completed in three years.
The secretaries general of the eight affected Departments, along with their Ministers, were told by the Minister for Finance during separate briefings in his Merrion Road offices.
The secrecy surrounding the plan was so tight that Ministers and officials knew only about the plans for their own Departments, and were not given sight of those affecting others.
The top civil servants were reportedly "left stunned" by Mr McCreevy's decision, and a number of them, then and since, have privately questioned the practicality of the plan.
Many now fear that their Departments could lose influence compared to the already powerful Department of Finance and the Department of the Taoiseach.
"I have no doubt that this will concentrate power in Finance and the Taoiseach's, while everybody is split up around the country," one highly-informed source said last night.
Some secretaries general believe that they could lose high-flying officials, who, they fear, will not be attracted by life outside of Dublin, regardless of promises made about future promotion.
Meanwhile, it emerged that Finance repeatedly ignored calls made by trade unions since 1999 to carry out a survey of opinion among staff to test their attitudes to decentralisation.
Eight Departments will leave Dublin. They are those of Agriculture & Food; Arts, Sport and Tourism; Communications, Marine and Natural Resources; Community, Rural & Gaeltacht Affairs; Defence; Education and Science; Environment, Heritage and Local Government; and Social and Family Affairs.
Two more, Foreign Affairs and Justice, Equality and Law Reform, will move hundreds of support staff, as will semi-State companies reporting to transport, such as Bus Éireann and the National Roads Authority.
Decentralisation's merits are widely accepted. "Eighty per cent of this could be done, with some problems, perhaps, but it could be done. The problem is moving key policy staff," said one official, echoing others.
Key departmental decision-makers increasingly have to work in concert with colleagues from other Departments.
"That will be difficult to replicate when everybody is around the country. Video conferencing, e-mails, etc., deal with a lot of those kind of problems, but they don't deal with everything. No other government has ever tried this," said one reliable source.
The Government has not ruled out raising millions of euros by selling or leasing landmark State-owned building, including the Office of Public Works (OPW) headquarters on Stephen's Green, to pave the way for decentralisation, writes Arthur Beesley.
However, the Custom House will not be sold as it is an "exception".
The Minister of State with responsibility for the OPW, Mr Tom Parlon, said last night there were no "major issues" preventing the disposal of other listed buildings which are used by Departments scheduled to move from Dublin.