Mr. Maurice Buckley:

I will take the general point first and ask my colleague, Mr. Kenneth Moore, to comment on the difference between the rates in Dublin and the countryside. In Dublin at the moment, the market is extremely tight. There are few, if any, buildings available and the rent is extremely high. The figures that we heard earlier would now be quite good. In the intervening times since those figures were negotiated, the market would have risen. To answer the Deputy's question about Amiens Street, with the current market I am sure that, even without seeing the building, if Foras na Gaeilge needed to move somewhere else, something could be done to find a client to take on the lease responsibilities. At the moment we are looking for any property that may be available in the region of Moore Street or anywhere else. I can tell the committee that at this point we have something in the region of 700 civil servants and 500 gardaí in Dublin awaiting accommodation. We are looking for approximately 1,200 places in Dublin and the rents are very rapidly heading towards €60 per sq. ft. or €600 per sq. m., which is significantly higher or around the level being looked at. All the signs we have are that rents will continue to increase. My colleague may be able to speak to decentralisation and the situation around the country better than I would.