The majority of staff at the Department of Social and Family Affairs want to remain at their current locations, according to a new survey on decentralisation.
It indicates that civil servants in lower grades are no more enthusiastic about the decentralisation programme than staff in management positions.
This is confirmed by the agenda for a union conference to take place next month. About a quarter of the motions tabled for the Public Service Executive Union's (PSEU) annual delegate conference express concern about the relocation programme.
The Government plans to move 10,300 civil and public servants to more than 50 locations in the regions within three years.
The headquarters of the Department of Social and Family Affairs is to be moved to Drogheda, Co Louth, while some staff are also to be moved to Buncrana, Donegal, Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim, and Sligo.
In addition, two agencies which operate under the aegis of the Department, Comhairle and the Combat Poverty Agency, are to be moved to Carrickmacross and Monaghan respectively.
Just over 3,000 - about two-thirds - of its 4,770 staff responded to the Department's survey. Many of them are already based outside Dublin.
Only 120 expressed an interest in moving to Drogheda, where it is envisaged that 300 staff will be based at the new headquarters.
Carrick-on-Shannon, where 225 staff are to be based, proved a more popular location, attracting 149 expressions of interest. But only 24 people want to move to Sligo, 16 to Carrickmacross, 15 to Buncrana and four to Monaghan, the survey indicates. In each case, this falls far short of the numbers required.
Nearly 600 respondents expressed an interest in moving to the decentralised office of another Department or agency, but 2,081 said they wished to stay at their current location.
Significantly, the survey indicates that lower-ranking civil servants are as reluctant to move as those on higher grades. To date, the union which has been most vocal on the issue is the Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants, which represents managerial staff.
It is thought decentralisation may be more attractive to younger staff on lower pay, who are less likely to have a family or to have purchased a home in Dublin.
However, of the 2,322 clerical officers, the lowest clerical grade, surveyed by the Department, 955 said they wished to remain at their current location, while 845 did not reply.
Only 218 said they would like to move to one of the proposed Department of Social and Family Affairs locations, and 304 to another Department or agency.
Resistance appears to be even stronger among the lower-paid, non-clerical grades. Of the 152 surveyed, fewer than half replied and none expressed interest in moving to one of the locations proposed for the Department.
The Department said the survey provided a "useful initial indication", but that staff preferences were likely to change as the decentralisation programme was implemented.
A total of 33 of the 120 motions tabled for the PSEU conference in April deal with decentralisation. The union represents staff at executive officer and higher executive level.
Most of the motions neither support nor oppose the decentralisation programme, but express concerns about aspects of it, such as the need to ensure that all transfers are voluntary.
