The Labour Party has said the Government needs to "return to the drawing board" on the decentralisation plan
The junior minister responsible for its implementation admitted today that some aspects of the project may be delayed.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio One's Morning Irelandprogramme, Mr Tom Parlon conceded some parts of the plan may not now be completed until 2007. The project, as outlined in the Budget last December, was to have been finished by the end of 2006.
Ms Joan Burton, the Labour Party's finance spokeswoman, said this admission was "the clearest indication yet that this ill-considered and poorly thought-out proposal in beginning to unravel".
She said: "The level of opposition to the proposal within the public service remains as high as ever and it is clear that if the government insists on going ahead with its plan, ministers will be moving to new locations on their own, or at best with a small number of more junior civil servants."
Ms Burton said all the evidence that the decentralisation plan was introduced at the last minute "to take the bare look off an otherwise unimaginative budget" in the hope it would give the Government some political advantage in the local and European elections.
She said it was now likely to rebound on the Government parties, with public servants in Dublin fearful they will be compelled to move to save their jobs and their careers.
Ms Burton added that the decentralisation plan had the capacity to do "enormous damage" to the public service, especially in the case of smaller agencies with large numbers of highly specialised staff.
In April, the Minister for Finance said the relocation timescale for the 10,300 public servants affected by the plan could be as long as 26 to 36 months where a site only, and not ready office space, was available.
The Government has adopted a Public Private Partnership (PPP) approach to finding office space in the various locations throughout the State, as recommended by the Decentralisation Implementation Group.
An online application system has been set up for public servants affected by the decentralisation policy.