Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

I am not sure exactly what the position is today, but I do not have a sense that they have sorted the issue or sub-let the remaining part of it. It is a difficulty and it is something we have raised in relation to a number of organisations, particularly where there are amalgamations and restructuring. Many organisations are locked into 25-year leases, for example. There may be break clauses and it is good if there are, but some organisations have got caught with longer leases and they have this difficulty.

If members look at item 4.12 on the next page, it is a more significant case that has been brought to the attention of the committee previously, relating to the Industrial Development Agency Ireland, IDA Ireland. It was locked into a situation with a building called Carrisbrook House, which is in Ballsbridge. Every year we were reporting that it had non-effective expenditure of about €1 million and it was locked into that until 2023 or 2024, or even longer, but in 2015 it managed to buy out the remaining obligations under the lease at a cost of €9.4 million. Had it not paid that €9.4 million, it would have been tied into it. I recall now that it was for the next 22 years, costing €1 million a year. While this is non-effective expenditure, it is better to be out of the lease at this stage. That was the cost of doing the deal with the property-owner.