Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte has called for a review of the Government's decentralisation plan after the Taoiseach admitted it was facing serious difficulties.
The plan, which would see 10,600 civil and public servants being moved from Dublin to over 50 locations around the country, has met with opposition from unions. Staff in FAS have been staging industrial action over what they claim is pressure being put on them to move.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern
Bertie Ahern admitted in an interview published today that the Government's deadline for decentralisation looked increasingly unlikely to be met. "We might have taken too much on in one go," he said. "We put ourselves in too tight a timeframe."
Mr Rabbitte said today Mr Ahern's comments proved that it was the "beginning of the end" for the plan, which was devised by former Minister for Finance Charlie McCreevy in December 2003. "It was not thought out, poorly planned and incapable of being implemented on the scale and in the timeframe proposed."
He added: "The Taoiseach should now be honest with those locations which have been promised relocated agencies or Departments and which he knows is not going to happen."
The Labour leader called on Mr Ahern to engage in an all-party review to agree "a properly planned programme of decentralisation based on the national spatial strategy".
Siptu wants State agencies removed from the decentralisation plan. The union will hold a protest next week outside the offices of Minister of State at the Department of Finance Tom Parlon, who is responsible for implementing the project.
The Impact union, which represents 1,200 civil servants and state agency staff earmarked for relocation, warned last week it was planning a lobbying campaign for the next General Election as dissatisfaction with decentralisation was a major issue for Dublin voters.