The Tánaiste has acknowledged that the Government must sort out the problem faced by public service staff who do not want to move to the decentralised locations to which the Government has decided to send their State agencies.
Ms Harney said yesterday that there was a "real issue" faced by staff of agencies such as Fás or Enterprise Ireland who did not want to move with their employer outside Dublin.
While Civil Service staff who did not want to move could be redeployed to different Government departments, staff of State agencies did not have the option to move to a different agency.
"There's no question of forcing anybody to move from Dublin to one of the decentralised locations," Ms Harney told reporters in Dublin yesterday.
"But there is an issue in relation to State bodies because employees of State bodies like Fás, for example, or Enterprise Ireland don't have the option if they don't wish to move . . . and there is a real issue there that I think we have to address."
She said she believed the decentralisation target - moving 10,000 civil and public servants out of Dublin - could be met "with a little bit of imagination".
Asked if bodies such as Fás - its staff representatives have been particularly outspoken in their opposition to a move out of Dublin - should be given a dispensation, she said: "Fás are in discussions through the industrial relations process, and I don't want to cut across that because it's always dangerous for any Minister to get involved in industrial relations disputes.
"It's better to leave them to those who have expertise.
"My view is we can reach the targets identified in a longer timeframe and with a little bit of imagination I think, and everybody's support; I think we will be able to reach the targets.
"But there is an issue; I've acknowledged there is an issue of people working in an organisation and they don't have the option to move to a different organisation, and I think there is a real issue there that we need to consider."
She said in the era of modern technology it was not an impossible task for the Government to move 10,000 public servants out of the capital city on a voluntary basis, as had been initially proposed by the Government.
They would not reach the deadline of three years set by Charlie McCreevy for the project "but I think we can make steady progressalready 10,600 people have opted to move.
"Now, I accept half of them are already out of Dublin and want to move to a different location within the country, but that is a considerable interest from public servants."
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern yesterday rejected the view of Siptu president Jack O'Connor that decentralisation was a significant issue in the stalled talks on a new national partnership. "I don't think decentralisation is the issue," he told reporters in Dublin.
Despite the objections to decentralisation from many public service staff, he claimed the Government was under pressure "from all those public servants who want to move and we cannot organise it quick enough. So from the point of view that there are 10,600 people who want to move and we can't get them all moved. They are probably a bit upset."
He said he did not think his pessimistic remarks in the Dáil last Tuesday about the prospects for agreement in the partnership talks represented a "doom and gloom" prediction. "But there are differences, and we have now adjourned until after the Impact conference, and we are resuming on Sunday.
"Nothing has changed since what I said on Tuesday, but at least both sides stated that they are prepared to try and reach an agreement, and I look forward to resuming the talks on that basis on Sunday."