The Government's decentralisation plan could be a waste of time and money, according to the German-Irish Chamber of Industry and Commerce (AHK).
The organisation says Ireland should learn from the move of the German federal government from Bonn to Berlin, which cost €14 billion, excluding staff relocation costs.
The government, comprising the two houses of parliament, the Chancellery, six ministries and 13,000 employees moved to Berlin in 1999.
A political decision was taken to leave six ministries and 8,500 employees in Bonn, but for Bonn ministries to have representations in Berlin and vice versa. The two-city solution now costs the federal government around €10 million a year, and German civil servants clock up 12,000 flights a month travelling between the two cities. Moving the remaining Bonn ministries to Berlin would cost a further €5 billion.
"In a country like Germany with a relatively good infrastructure, all this trekking to and fro is expensive but still possible," said Mr Bernd Reinhard, the AHK deputy executive director.
"In a country like Ireland, civil servants will mainly have to travel by car. Given the admittedly improving but still not fabulous road conditions, they will probably spend more time on Irish roads than in their offices.
"It is very likely that after decentralisation they will need a whole day for a one-hour meeting in their own or another department."
The German government invested €250 million in a state-of-the-art videoconferencing system to minimise the need to travel, but a confidential report by the Federal Audit Office shows that high-ranking officials still prefer face-to-face meetings.
The auditors have criticised the waste of money in commuting and recommended a clearer separation of responsibilities between Berlin and Bonn offices, which has yet to happen.
"The Irish approach of spreading Departments all over the country will make it necessary to implement infrastructural improvements linking all the locations in question," said Mr Bernd Reinhard of the DIHK in Dublin.
Former government employees say the German solution creates needless paperwork, bureaucracy and time-wasting.