Two Cabinet Ministers and a Minister of State have said the Government's three-year deadline for its decentralisation plan is unlikely to be met.
The Minister for Defence Mr Smith said earlier that "it would be extremely difficult to achieve the full amount of what the Government has outlined within the three-year span".
The Minister for Transport Mr Brennan said the Government was "committed to the principle" of decentralisation. However there were many practical issues to be dealt with, and the process would take "a number of years".
"There isn't a deadline in that it all has to happen on one particular big bang day. It's a process over a couple of years and we are keen to get on with it quickly.
"These things take time. The last time we did decentralisation it went on over many years. You won't wake up on morning and suddenly have a whole lot of civil servants moved to the country," added Mr Brennan.
Labour Party leader Mr Pat Rabbitte said the "slithering out from under decentralisation had already started".
Mr Rabbitte said that it was implicit in the new tone from the Government that it now new the decentralisation plan would have to be negotiated. "It was never practical and never in the interests of good governance in this country."
Fine Gael's Dublin spokesman Senator Brian Hayes said: "If the Government decides to shore up its programme through creating new posts to which staff could be promoted, the implications for the taxpayer could be massive."
The Government should "recognise the folly of the scheme announced in the Budget and put a realistic and achievable decentralisation programme in place."