Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)

I would like to discuss the number of buildings that the State is renting or leasing as part of the decentralisation programme. This is a particular concern in Portlaoise, which is in my constituency of Laois-Offaly. Six buildings in the town are being rented or leased by the Department of Agriculture, Marine and Food as part of the decentralisation programme. Deputies will recall that the details of the programme were announced in late 2003, not long before the local elections of 2004. In October 2010, the then Government provided details of the premises being leased in Portlaoise, which were accommodating 317 departmental officials as well as staff from the Equality Tribunal. Further information was provided to the effect that the State was paying €191,000 to rent the old Eircom building at Knockmay Road, €264,640 to rent the Grattan business centre at Dublin Road opposite the prison and approximately €210,000 to rent three units at Gandon Court, Fairgreen in the town. As I understand it, some of the agreements are 20-year leases. Some of the offices are in entirely unsuitable locations, including above a chip shop, over a pub, over a supermarket, in an industrial estate warehouse and in an old Eircom building. The office above the chip shop is in several small apartments and is totally unsuitable. As there is just one toilet - either a ladies' toilet or a gents' toilet - in each of the apartments, women and men who are working beside each other have to go to the toilet in different flats. If the women do not have to go to a different apartment, the men have to do so. There has been a fragmentation in services as a result of these difficulties. The staff in Portlaoise have told me that the operation of the Department is totally chaotic.

We are all aware of the penalties being suffered by businesses as a result of the existence of upward-only rent reviews. Will the Minister of State tell the House whether the State is being affected in the same way? If so, what does he propose to do about it? Has there been any renegotiation of these substantial rents? The Government has spent €12 million under the decentralisation project on the rental of offices in Portlaoise. Have moves been made to secure permanent accommodation so that the State does not fund private landlords at the expense of the taxpayer? The funding of such people would be totally unacceptable at a time when severe cutbacks have been implemented. Will the Minister of State give a commitment to ensure none of the projects that are proposed involves the use of public private partnership? Such an approach has been shown to represent poor value for taxpayers' money. It has been shown to be one of the most expensive means of providing new public buildings in the long term. The previous Government said that a new headquarters for the Department of Agriculture, Marine and Food in Portlaoise would take two years to build. My understanding is that it was proposed to build it through the use of public private partnership. An update on what is happening with this matter is required. A site on the Mountrath Road in Portlaoise was purchased at a cost of approximately €1 million but is now lying idle - it is covered with thistles and buachaláns. Will the Minister of State update us on this important matter?

See this speech in context