Following pleas from DPP James Hamilton for more staff . . . particularly in the prosecution unit which is receiving an increasing number of files from the gardai . . . 29 new posts were sanctioned by finance minister Brian Cowen last January.

But Taoiseach Bertie Ahern told opposition leader Enda Kenny in the Dail last week that the filling of all the additional posts "will not be possible until additional accommodation which has been approved by the OPW becomes available".

Ahern explained that the DPP's office, which has 200 staff split between two separate locations in Merrion Street and Abbey Street in Dublin, are due to move en masse into the headquarters of the Department of Defence on Infirmary Road beside the Phoenix Park.

However, the DPP cannot move in until the Department of Defence moves to Newbridge, Co Kildare, under the government's decentralisation programme, and Ahern admitted this will lead to "difficulties".

On top of the overall delay affecting decentralisation, the move to Newbridge is already a year behind schedule. The 200 staff in the Department of Defence were supposed to be in their new offices in Newbridge by now, the third quarter of 2007. But the latest government report on decentralisation said construction of the Defence Forces HQ should now start in the third quarter of 2007 and the staff should be in place by the third quarter of 2008.

But even this rescheduled move is considered optimistic as construction of the new Defence Forces HQ has not begun yet and any move to Newbridge is unlikely until well into 2009.

"I think it is agreed where the DPP is going, but there is delay. I will see what I can do about that, " said Ahern.