Labour leader Pat Rabbitte accused Taoiseach Bertie Ahern of misleading the Dáil in his statements on decentralisation.
Mr Rabbitte claimed that had former Taoiseach Charles Haughey "uttered the misleading statements to the House that the Taoiseach habitually utters, people would have been marching in the streets".
Repeating a statement by Mr Ahern that "all the civil servants in the various areas are moving", deputy Rabbitte asked: "What kind of parallel universe is the Taoiseach living in?" He asked what departments were now moving and to where, in the wake of Mr Ahern's comments over the weekend that the decentralisation programme would not go ahead in the timeframe planned. Mr Ahern "ought to tell people whose lives have been put on hold precisely who will be transferred and when".
Mr Ahern pointed out, however, that 10,600 civil servants had applied to relocate and "it is anticipated interest will increase further as buildings are built and timetables firm up".
The Taoiseach said it was "not a charge to get civil servants out of Dublin and into caravans. When the sites are available, they will move. It will not be finished by Christmas, but some hundreds of civil servants will have moved by then to the 13 locations."
He stressed that "civil servants are well informed through staff negotiations". Difficulties had arisen "with the State agencies which have no history of decentralisation and where small numbers of people are involved".
Mr Ahern added that they would negotiate through the difficulties, but "I see no difficulty with policy-making units being here, there or anywhere. Some of the largest multinational companies in the world operate in Ireland. With their bases in different parts of the world, they have policy and business meetings through televised conferences."
Mr Ahern added: "To say that because someone is in Nenagh or Sligo, the whole Civil Service system will stop functioning is a statement from the 1930s. There are no difficulties with this issue. Thankfully, Ireland is one of the world's largest exporters of information and communications technology. To believe that in a small island we cannot communicate on policy issues, is a nonsense."
Mr Rabbitte asked in the light of what he called the Taoiseach's "climbdown", what venues would not get the Departments or agencies of the civil or public servants that were promised. "What is the new deadline for any decentralisation that will proceed? How many of the 10,300 personnel pledged by Mr McCreevy will still be relocated? How many of the agencies will be relocated? Will any of the specialist staff be relocated?"
Claiming that decentralisation was designed to disperse civil and public servants, Mr Rabbitte said it had "little to do with genuine decentralisation or devolution of power. It was never intended to correct regional imbalance and it has now run aground."
The Taoiseach, however, insisted that movement of staff between departments and offices was well under way and 1,500 people had already signed up for departments. All departments and offices had produced implementation plans setting out the detailed arrangements being put in place for the relocation.
