Claims department relocated to Dublin 2

The new office of the Minister of State for Children is being "decentralised" to Dublin 2 and this was a "farce", Labour's finance spokeswoman Joan Burton claimed during a row on decentralisation.

Ms Burton said this was the answer given to a parliamentary question that the "prototype new Office of the Minister for Children" would be decentralised to Redmond Hill in Dublin 2.

Minister for Finance Brian Cowen said that "what is a farce is having to listen to Opposition deputies talking out of both sides of their mouth". He asked every Opposition member to name a town or a county to which Government offices should not be decentralised. "It smacks of hypocrisy that the Opposition is saying 'we are in favour of it but'," he said during finance questions.

"I am tired of answering parliamentary questions from every Labour Party deputy in the country asking when the decentralised offices will come to their local areas," Mr Cowen added, claiming there was "continuous negative commentary and political dishonesty" from the Opposition.

Mr Cowen insisted the proposals were not a "hastily cobbled together" announcement for political purposes. The programme was first proposed in 1999 and more than 130 towns had sought to have decentralised departments brought to their area.

"A long period of deliberation took place before the announcement was made."

Mr Cowen said 1,500 people assigned posts in new locations represented 20 per cent "of the Civil Service part of the programme".