Moving civil servants to disadvantaged Dublin suburbs is being considered by the Cabinet under its promise to decentralise 10,000 Government workers.

Transferring civil servants to "fringe" areas of the capital would exploit their lower property prices and relieve city centre congestion, a Department of Finance delegation told an Oireachtas committee.

But Ministers are still weighing their options and have not yet reached a decision, said Mr Dermot Quigley, a principal officer at the Department's public administration unit.

Roughly half of the civil servants working in Dublin would have to leave the capital if the target of 10,0000 decentralised posts were to be reached, said Mr Quigley at the Oireachtas Committee on Finance and the Public Service.

But nearly four years after the Government first announced its intention to do so, the Cabinet has yet to decide which civil servants are to leave Dublin or where they might go.

In the absence of a deadline, the Government continues to consider submissions from individual Departments, unions and from the 130 towns and and cities lobbying to house decentralised offices.

More than 10,000 expressions of interest have been received from Dublin-based civil servants. This figure, however, includes those indicating they would be prepared to move to more than one location.

It is unlikely that any Department will be transferred in its entirety as there will be a need for senior civil servants to be close to the capital so long as it remains the centre of political and economic power, Mr Quigley has said.

It could be argued, he said, that senior civil servants should be near not only the Government and the Attorney General but also to the "movers and shakers" in the political and business worlds.

Transferring civil servants to Dublin's periphery would benefit both the State, which could take advantage of an oversupply of office space in such districts, and local communities, said Dublin South West TD Mr Conor Lenihan. But those who moved should not see their career prospects suffering, he said. The clustering in Dublin of senior, highly paid positions must end if decentralisation is to prove viable.

"There is a perception that if you want to get ahead in the civil service you need to take a job in Dublin. The Government must take steps to address this," said Mr Lenihan.