Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

I am glad the Deputy mentioned this. The Office of Public Works is currently working on precisely the kind of initiative the Deputy speaks about whereby the State redeems best value from the property available to it. This came about as a result of the ideas campaign, which was a public campaign and this was one of its recommendations. The OPW is working to ensure that all lands, not just those belonging to the Exchequer, to ourselves or to line Departments, and all public buildings around the country are properly audited. To date, the OPW does not have a centralised register of all publicly-owned property, not just the core assets of Departments but also the wider local authority and health services sites.

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