Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 11 October 2018

Public Accounts Committee

2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works
Chapter 6: Lease of Offices at Miesian Plaza

9:00 am

Photo of Marc MacSharryMarc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Exactly, because that is what we do in Ireland. We set regulatory standards for everybody else except the people at the top. Mr. Buckley understands the point I am making. I agree he may have a team with access to the largest payable rent roll in the country, and who have access to the most square footage, at 800,000 sq.m or 900,000 sq. m, for civil servants, but we have chosen not to make it an essential prerequisite for officials to have qualifications. The point is made and I want to move on.

The difference between the international property measurement standard, IPMS 3, and net lettable area, which Mr. Buckley refers to as net internal area, is not rocket science. It would have taken basic common sense and not a degree to know that the OPW or its agents negotiated a lease based on net lettable area. That is measurement to the walls, which does not include service cores such as elevators and stairs, or pillars.

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