Mr. William Walsh:

We were a tenant of the lead agency, IDA Ireland in Wilton Park Place. The SEAI, Science Foundation Ireland, the Marine Institute and IDA Ireland shared a building. IDA Ireland has similar powers to the OPW to purchase property. IDA Ireland led an interagency move because we were being evicted from Wilton Park House, as the organisation that owned it was redeveloping it and had other tenants. We were forced to move in 2019. As part of that move, IDA Ireland led an interagency process where it went through a significant process to secure and procure offices which SEAI was involved in. IDA Ireland is the lead tenant in 3 Park Place at present.

On the levels of increase in energy consumption in the new building, our footprint is twice as big as our previous footprint which was 12,500 sq. ft., which we were squeezed into. We have doubled our footprint to allow us to scale up to what we are doing at the moment and to future-proof our premises.