Hundreds of civil service jobs are being relocated to the Co Kildare constituency of the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy.
Almost 400 officials, most of them from the Department of Agriculture, are being relocated to a new "campus" of State laboratories at Backweston Farm, near Celbridge.
The contacts for this €200 million development were signed yesterday by Mr McCreevy and Minister of State, Mr Martin Cullen.
The laboratories are being moved from their current site at Abbotstown, Co Dublin, to make way for the Government's plans for a national stadium. In spite of the uncertainty surrounding this project, the move to Backweston is going ahead.
Department officials from Kildare Street and Earlsfort Terrace are also being relocated to the new campus. Meanwhile, several hundred Department officials are being relocated to temporary offices in Maynooth. In addition, the farm previously operated at Abbotstown is being relocated to Sallins, Co Kildare - several hundred yards from Mr McCreevy's home.
At a ceremony to mark the signing of contracts, Mr McCreevy described the new development as a "tremendous investment" for Co Kildare, which would benefit a broad spectrum of the local community. "We're actually going to move the whole Government to Kildare," he joked.
The Backweston campus, the largest construction project undertaken by the Office of Public Works, will comprise the State Laboratory and the various laboratories operated by the Department of Agriculture and Food, covering areas such as seed testing, veterinary research and dairy science. The marine laboratory at Abbotstown is being moved to Galway.
The campus, which is to include a conference centre and creche, is scheduled to be ready by the end of 2004. The State Laboratory is being built by Pierce Contracting of Mulhuddart, Co Dublin, and the agriculture laboratory by Bennett (Construction) of Milltownpass, Co Westmeath.
The overall cost of the project is unknown, as the €200 million price tag does not include the cost of equipment and the bill for relocating staff.
Mr McCreevy said Backweston was "the obvious site" for relocation because it was near Abbotstown and was on land owned by the Department. There was "unbelievable interest" among Department staff in relocating to Co Kildare.
The Backweston project was first mooted in February 2000, two weeks after the Government first proposed building a stadium at Abbotstown.
Shortly after, 259 of the 352 staff at Abbotstown signed a petition deploring the lack of consultation on what they saw as "an unnecessary and wasteful" move. On the national stadium, Mr McCreevy said he remained fully committed to the project, but it was important to get value for money.
