The North's Education Minister, Mr Martin McGuinness, is moving his office from a predominantly loyalist area of Co Down to Stormont. The DUP accused Mr McGuinness of cowardice, but his department claimed it was a practical decision.
Mr McGuinness denied the accusation. He said he would continue to visit Rathgael House and was opening another office at Stormont simply to save travelling time.
It is understood that while the original office in Rathgael House, Bangor, will continue to be the department's headquarters, Mr McGuinness will operate mainly from an office in Castle Buildings, Stormont.
A group of loyalist protesters jeered Mr McGuinness outside the premises last week. UVF and Union flags were raised on lampposts around the building. The Ulster Newsletter claimed the Sinn Fein Minister had been concerned about his security.
The spokeswoman for the department said yesterday that plans for the new Stormont office had been drawn up under the last period of devolution, and added: "The process of providing the Minister with office facilities in Castle Buildings in Stormont began during the last period of devolution. This provision is purely a matter of working convenience. There are no plans to move the department from its present location in Bangor."
The DUP accused Mr McGuinness of cowardice. The party's Minister for Regional Development, Mr Peter Robinson, said Mr McGuinness was clearly unacceptable to many people and had gone to "hide in a bunker" at Stormont.
His own department's headquarters were in the staunchly nationalist Markets area of Belfast, Mr Robinson said, and he had no difficulty with that.
The Lord Mayor of Belfast, Mr Sammy Wilson of the DUP, said: "Martin McGuinness will have another story to tell about life on the run next time he visits a school, although, he will probably be a bit less willing to speak about his flight from Rathgael.
"We now have a Minister who cannot openly visit the schools he controls and who is forced to run from his own office."
The DUP motion demanding Sinn Fein's exclusion from the Executive will be debated in 10 days, the party announced. Mr Robinson said the motion had been accepted by the Assembly's business office and would be submitted to the Speaker to establish if it was in order, before being submitted to the business committee on Tuesday.
Mr Robinson said his party's motion was a "substantive and reasoned" one which had been signed by the UK Unionist leader, Mr Bob McCartney, the United Unionist Assembly Party, and the dissident UUP MLA, Mr Peter Weir.
A similar motion has already been lodged by the Northern Ireland Unionist Party and its leader, Mr Cedric Wilson, claimed yesterday he was informed that because his party's motion was with the business committee first, it would "take precedence" over the DUP's.
Mr Wilson warned that unless other unionist parties backed this motion, the attempt to exclude Sinn Fein ministers from office could be lost before the summer recess.
The motion states that the Provisional IRA is "inextricably linked" to Sinn Fein and the party cannot sit in government while its military wing refuses to decommission and disband, and is still engaging in "murder and other acts of violence".