Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Chairman of the Office of Public Works, OPW, is the senior responsible owner for driving reforms in public property asset management. The Chairman chairs the steering group established in October 2012, drawn from public service property stakeholders, to review existing property management arrangements across the public sector and develop a framework to drive efficiency and value for money from the State's property portfolio.

The group is finalising a property management delivery plan, which will set out how each of the elements identified in the Government's property asset reform programme will be managed in the short, medium and longer term. The plan will identify the planned changes, without impacting significantly on the ongoing service delivery of public bodies. The plan will focus on measures that maximise the efficient use of State assets, improving information sharing and decision-making capacity and streamlining arrangements for intra-public service property asset sharing and transfer.

The objective of the reform programme will be to achieve efficiencies through shared protocols, standards and policies around space allocation and more open-plan working. A cross-disciplinary committee within the OPW is developing a set of standards for office accommodation in accordance with international practice. These measures will be supported by a more effective communication process throughout the public service through the introduction of an intra-public service map-based property register and web portal. The map-based register is intended to facilitate intra-public service data sharing. The OPW is finalising a prototype with data from OPW's property holdings initially and this will be available to public service property holders shortly.

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