Political reaction: The Government's plans to move 10,000 civil servants out of offices in Dublin within three years is "in tatters", Fine Gael has said following publication of the Government's latest report on the decentralisation plan.
Twenty-nine of the original 53 locations chosen have been abandoned, Fine Gael deputy leader, Mr Richard Bruton said: "The country deserves better than the current shambles emerging from the Government's botched plan.
"There are firm commitments on just over 2,000 civil servants despite the promise last December that 10,000 people would be decentralised within three years. Nothing even close to this will happen."
A close examination of yesterday's report from the top-level group set up to implement the plan reveals that just 14 locations "earmarked for the first phase of moves" have "any degree of genuine commitment", he said.
"Of the 2,000 people targeted to move in the first phase, over 60 per cent (1,320) of them are moving to commuter towns around Dublin. Finally, of the 14 towns in the first phase only three of them are fully subscribed with civil servants based in Dublin.
"The remainder are subscribed by a majority of people already living and working outside Dublin," said Mr Bruton
"The monumental mishandling of this decentralisation programme has set back the cause of genuine regional development. This is not the type of decentralisation that was promised, or the type of decentralisation the country could really have used.
"What we are left with is a complete shambles that short-changes both the staff directly involved and the public they serve. Decentralisation could and should have been a real force for change."
Meanwhile, Labour Party TD, Ms Joan Burton, said "the much scaled down level of decentralisation outlined in yesterday's report clearly indicates that the whole project is now in serious difficulties".
"It is clear that there is no prospect of completing the entire programme - or even the bulk of it - by 2007, as had been promised by minister McCreevy."
Green Party TD, Mr Dan Boyle, said decentralisation had been the centrepiece of the 2004 Budget. "It shows how hollow that budget was and how little work had been done.
"This climbdown is a U-turn in policy of enormous proportions that should ordinarily see resignations from Government but probably will not."
Sinn Féin TD, Mr Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats had used decentralisation "to deceive" the electorate before the June local and European elections.
"They dispensed the prospect of civil service relocation like jelly babies to towns all over the State," the Cavan/Monaghan TD said, saying that just 3,500 civil servants will now move.
