In the beginning, the Minister for Finance issued the Government's decentralisation sermon. Now there is a plan. In nine months public servants will begin to move out of Dublin.
Yesterday, Mr Phil Flynn, a leading industrial relations problem solver, offered the fruits of four months' work by the expert group set up to pilot the plan.
The package offers little room for compromise. Although relocation will be voluntary, future promotions will be biased towards regional offices. Under the plan, civil and public servants will be asked to rank their preferred locations in order of preference, from one to 10. In an attempt to encourage early applications, those who register within eight weeks of the system going "live" in May will be given priority later.
So far, Mr Flynn said his group has been "inundated" with interest, although, when pressed, he acknowledged that this is coming from lower and middle official grades. The central register is necessary, he said, because decentralisation on a department-by-department basis would be impractical, confusing and cause "needless duplication".
The staff surveys carried out to date are "of little value", since officials are unlikely to make up their minds finally until they are convinced that the plan will happen.
"For instance, some guys might want to go to Newbridge to Defence, but equally they also want to end up as an assistant secretary somewhere. So it matters to them that Agriculture does actually go to Portlaoise so that there are actually promotions within commuting distance," said one official yesterday.
However, the key will be greater flexibility among State employees. Civil servants should be able to apply for jobs in non-civil service agencies, and vice versa.
"The aim should be to achieve the maximum level of "interchangeability" between the civil and public service organisations. We recognise that this poses a significant challenge to all involved but we believe that such an approach is both desirable and necessary," said the 50-page Flynn report.
The Government must be ready to move fast. "Staff \ transfer as soon as possible to the organisation which is due to move to the location of their choice," the report said. This is based on experience gained from the transfer of the Revenue Commissioners' Collector General's office to Limerick some years ago.
Putting it colourfully, one Finance official said: "Identify, train and move. That is the goal. If you don't, people's circumstances change. A guy says he wants to go, then he meets some young one on a Friday night and then he doesn't want to leave Dublin."
Some issues need urgent attention. Some locations will not be able to fill all vacancies simply by transfer. Promotions will have to be offered as carrots.
"In the circumstances, it would not be tenable to continue to fill recruitment vacancies and make promotions on a 'business as usual' basis," said the report. Therefore, all promotions available until September should be "conditional", i.e. offered only to civil servants who are prepared to leave Dublin.
Although the Government insists that no compensation will be offered, it seems clear that thought has been given to offering other attractions. Efforts to offer better childcare for State workers should continue "with particular attention on the provision of creches in Cork, Limerick and Galway".
In addition, civil servants should be given practical help, such as advice on selling their houses in Dublin, or arranging accommodation for children staying on to attend college.Furthermore, they could be assisted "with securing places" in provincial schools, with spouses also helped to find work.
The chosen 53 locations will need help "to identify any potential deficiencies in services and facilities". The Department of Education, it emerges, has already been asked to outline investment plans for schools in these towns over the next three years.
During the debate so far the Government has insisted that a decentralised civil service can operate efficiently in a technological age. However, the UK experience suggests otherwise where "significant numbers" of decentralised staff are still travelling to London regularly for meetings. Whatever about improving the use of video-conferencing, the civil service needs to "tackle what may be an unnecessarily extensive meetings culture".
Some meetings, however, will have to be held in Dublin although overnight costs could be cut "by the bulk purchase of overnight accommodation".
Finding provincial offices should not be too much of a problem given that property developers have made 700 offers, although this number is already being whittled down.
Decentralisation will force the evacuation of 200,000 square metres of office accommodation in Dublin - enough to bury the office-letting business in the capital. The report indicates that the State may have to hold on to buildings it owns for a lengthy period before selling to avoid a major fall in market prices.