The Government has cut 29 regional towns from the first phase of the decentralisation programme in a major climb down from its controversial plan to move more than 10,000 State officials from Dublin to the regions before the end of 2007.
Only 20 towns will benefit in the initial stages of the project up to 2008.
The announcement follows a number of reports by an implementation group which have been accepted in full by the Government.
The Minister of State for Finance, Mr Tom Parlon, said the decision followed a realistic assessment of what was possible at this time.
He also sought to distance the Government from the original 2007 target. "I don't think the commitment was actually made in the Budget. I think that Minister McCreevy at some later stage alluded to the 2007 deadline," he said. "Perhaps he didn't appreciate the complexities of creating that degree of infrastructure for people."
The implementation group has rejected the claim by Mr McCreevy that the project would be self-financing. The group said the Government would not reach break-even point on the initiative until 2026 and warned of an "increasingly negative cumulative cash flow" in 2006-10.
It also reversed claims that the private sector would pay for the building work instead of the State.
Chaired by the former ICTU president, Mr Phil Flynn, the implementation group said that 2,130 official posts would be moved to 15 locations in the first phase of the project, which will continue until 2008. The group identified a further 1,362 positions as "potential early movers" to six new locations.
A further 2,200 positions in the Garda, Defence Forces, State agencies and IT area were earmarked as "priority" projects, although the Government gave no deadline for the moves.
The biggest recipients of new jobs in the first wave of relocations include Portlaoise, Co Laois, which receives 392 Department of Agriculture posts, while Trim, Co Meath, receives 333 posts in the Office of Public Works.
Some 202 Department of Defence jobs will go to Newbridge, Co Kildare. Longford will receive 159 Irish Prison Service jobs, while 141 jobs in the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism are to go to Killarney, Co Kerry. Some 125 jobs in the Department of Foreign Affairs are to go to Limerick.
Divisions within the Department of Communications are moving to Clonakilty, Co Cork, and Sligo, while parts of the Department of Social and Family Affairs are going to Drogheda and Sligo. Units in the Revenue are moving to Kilrush, Listowel and Newcastle West. Parts of the Department of Transport are moving to Loughrea, while parts of the Department of Finance are moving to Tullamore.
The "potential early movers" destinations are: Athlone (Education and Science, 108 posts); Carlow (Enterprise Trade and Employment, 313); Carrick-on-Shannon (Social and Family Affairs, 220); Knock (Community, Rural and Gaeltacht, 164); Mullingar (Education and Science, 299) and Wexford (Environment, 258).