A decision on the Government plan to decentralise 10,000 civil servants around the State has been postponed until the autumn because of concern that it was turning into a Dutch auction among Ministers.
A Cabinet sub-committee comprising the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, and the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, will steer the plan over the summer. It was to have been finalised at next week's Cabinet meeting.
Senior Government sources told The Irish Times that the decentralisation plan had turned into an ad-hoc frenzy with Ministers, Ministers of State and backbenchers attempting to claim Government Departments and agencies for their areas.
More than 100 towns have lobbied Mr McCreevy for a Government Department or agency. It was the intention to decentralise various offices to no more than 20 locations.
The relentless clamour for a Government office centred on the fact that there was a lack of clear criteria in relation to the decentralisation plan. Mr McCreevy had said, when he announced the decentralisation in last December's Budget, that "no town or city was being ruled out". He did not indicate any necessary qualifying factor.
The Cabinet sub-committee may look at the idea of drawing up definite criteria to deal with the issue.
There were fears in Government circles in the last few weeks that if more thought did not go into the moving of Departments and offices, it could backfire on Fianna Fail and the PDs, which have taken a serious battering in recent times following tribunal revelations and the Hugh O'Flaherty controversy.
A spokesman for the Tanaiste said last night that she did not want to see "a good idea become a bad one by being spread too thinly". She said proper decentralisation should happen "for social and economic reasons and not for political reasons".
The Tanaiste confirmed, after a meeting of the Progressive Democrats' parliamentary party in Waterford yesterday, that the Government would not be making any decision in relation to decentralisation until after the summer period.
"It is important that decentralisation is done on a planned and sensible basis. Firstly we have to take account of the public servants that have to be relocated from the Dublin area," Ms Harney said.
The Government would have to look very carefully at areas where it was proposed to devolve Departments or agencies. "We have to move forward on a sensible basis," she added.
Since the plan was announced, cases have been made by political and local representatives from all over Ireland, reaching a peak in the last week as the Cabinet was due to rubber-stamp locations to get an office.
For example, Listowel in Co Kerry put in a bid for the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, while Tuam said it would accept any Department or section.
Mr Ulick Burke TD asked if the Land Registry could be decentralised to a town in Co Galway while Mr Seymour Crawford asked Mr McCreevy if he would consider towns in Co Monaghan given that Border counties suffered more than most as a result of the years of violence in the North.
Trade unions representing the civil servants have also been making representations to the Department of Finance in relation to relocation fees. It was speculated that civil servants were seeking £5,000 each for moving. This would make the total cost of "disruption" money £50 million.
Agencies hotly tipped to move include the Prisons Service to Kildare (Mr McCreevy's constituency), Ordnance Survey Ireland to Trim or Ennis and the Land Registry to Waterford.