Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny has described the Government's decentralisation scheme as "a shambles", and said it should be honest about the places where it was not working.
Calling for an audit of the process by which the Government is seeking to move 10,000 civil servants out of Dublin to locations around the State, Mr Kenny said that where it was working, the scheme should go ahead. But where it was not, there should be honesty about the matter and the Government should abandon the process.
Speaking on RTÉ, Mr Kenny claimed policy-making civil servants should not be needlessly shifted around the country. "What I would like to see happen after the next election is that we would carry out an audit on where we stand in relation to the decentralisation programme.
"Clearly where grades, skills and numbers measure up you get on and implement it; that where clearly it is not going to happen you be honest and open with people and try to rescue from the shambles that it is, what you can for each individual town or for that region."