The Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Ms Coughlan, has decided to move a division of her Department to Drogheda, Co Louth, instead of Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, in the decentralisation initiative.instead of Carrickmacross
Ms Coughlan is planning to compensate Carrickmacross for the loss of the 85 jobs in the Comhairle division by moving 85 other jobs in her Department to the town.
The change to the plan is the first since the Government published figures last month which indicated only a low level of interest in decentralisation among Dublin-based civil and public servants.
However, none of the other Departments expected to move from Dublin have made similar changes to their decentralisation plans.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Finance said: "No other such decisions have been made. There's nothing else that we're aware of."
The spokesman for Ms Coughlan said the Minister had decided in mid-July that the objectives of the decentralisation programme "would be more effectively achieved" if Comhairle moved to Drogheda instead of Carrickmacross.
The required number of posts for Carrickmacross would be met by transferring 85 posts of the Department to the town, he said.
The change to the plan was posted on the Government's decentralisation website.
Comhairle is responsible for supporting the provision of information, advice and advocacy on social services. It operates the network Citizens Information Centres and the Citizens Information Phone Service.
While 85 posts are attached to Comhairle, only 47 of those posts are currently located in Dublin, with the rest being distributed throughout the State.
The decision to move the division to Drogheda follows a Government decision in July to move 225 information technology jobs in the Department to the town. It had previously been decided that 300 other jobs in the Department would move to Drogheda.
Public representatives in Co Monaghan including the Fine Gael TD, Mr Seymour Crawford, said they were demanding an "immediate explanation" from the Minister.
Mr Crawford said he wanted Ms Coughlan to explain what went wrong with the plans to move Comhairle to Carrickmacross. The people of south Monaghan deserved a ministerial assurance supported by positive action to ensure they would benefit from the decentralisation programme.