The Government minister in charge of decentralisation today criticised EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy for announcing the plan in 2003.
Minster for State at the Department of Finance Tom Parlon said Mr Creevy's original Budget proposals to relocate 10,300 civil servants to 53 different locations within three years were overly ambitious.
The Laois-Offaly TD said: "It was very ambitious when Charlie McCreevy announced in the Budget that it would be up and running before the next General Election, and he doesn't have to worry about it now.
"You can't just click you fingers and create a building." But the Progressive Democrat member added: "It offers the biggest ever opportunity for civil servants to work where and in what department they want."
Former Finance Minister Mr McCreevy was appointed EU Commissioner for the Internal Market in a Cabinet reshuffle a year ago.
Mr Parlon has faced strong criticism on the decentralisation plans from public service unions and Opposition parties.
Fine Gael front bench spokesman Liam Twomey today advised that the decentralisation should have been planned over the course of at least a decade.
The Wexford TD, who was a member of the Finance and Public Service Oireachtas Committee which discussed the plans, said: "I don't think it was very well thought out at the beginning.
"I don't think it's going to work the way it's down to be done.
"Decentralisation must be planned over a decade and the corporate culture of the civil services," he told RTE Radio.
The public service union Impact today reiterated its criticism of the plans as not being workable for members.
Spokeswoman Louise O'Donnell said the Probation and Welfare Service, which works with clients in Dublin, will have to close two regional city offices and relocate to Co Meath.
"Either the clients will have to travel to Navan or the probation officers will have to travel to Dublin to meet," she explained.
PA