A trawl of the entire Civil Service to find staff to work for the Legal Aid Board when it transfers to Cahirciveen, the home town of the Minister for Justice, has attracted 51 applicants for 40 posts.
Only three board staff expressed any desire to move to the Co Kerry coastal town when the posts were advertised internally last spring.
The board and unions initially resisted the Minister's plans to transfer headquarters to his home turf, an attractive tourist town with a population of about 2,000. The board said Mr O'Donoghue had not consulted it before the Government decision was taken last summer.
The board said at the time that the disruption and dislocation caused by the transfer would "impede the capacity of the board to effectively manage the service". It subsequently carried out an impact assessment and agreed to retain a skeletal staff in the capital.
"There's a price in all decentralisations, but there's a plus as well," said the board's chief executive, Mr Frank Goodman, who will remain posted in Dublin but make regular trips to Cahirciveen.
"We looked at how the service would operate. It was suitable for accounts and purchasing and the records sections. Initially we would have said this is going to be very difficult, but then we looked and said various functions will operate with appropriate computerisation."
The Legal Aid Board's headquarters administers the State's 30 law centres which provide legal aid in civil cases for people on modest incomes.
The transfer is part of the programme of decentralisation of government to promote the regeneration of rural Ireland. Mr Goodman said he believed virtually all the board's relocation vacancies could be filled by the applicants, with "maybe one or two gaps", including a senior position.
He said the response to the vacancies from civil servants was "quite healthy" as other Government Departments have had to recruit externally to fill vacancies arising from decentralisation.
"Obviously there are people who want to work in Cahirciveen. It could be due to a whole range of reasons, from wanting to get out of Dublin to the more attractive housing propositions," he said.
Mr Goodman said personnel, industrial relations, recruitment and training staff would remain in the capital. Current board staff will transfer to other Government Departments. The total head office staff is increasing from 40 to 47 as a result of having offices in both Dublin and Cahirciveen, he added. The Office of Public Works is examining sites in Cahirciveen and the transfer is due to be completed by 2001.