Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State has acknowledged my earlier interest in this matter as I have followed up on this before because my experience in Galway has been dreadful. The health executive of the time leased a property for almost €1 million per year on a 35-year lease, and in the end it was cheaper to break the lease with a €1 million penalty. I have a particular interest and it would seem to me to make more sense to have State owned properties.

There is an acknowledgement of that on page 9 of this review in respect of the important structures and facilities for the Government, but this is a fascinating subject. The Office Public Works has 2,500 properties valued at €3.3 billion. Some 61% of the office space is owned and 39% is leased. The review looked at five properties and case studies. In every single case, the review found it was significantly cheaper to build. That was over a 40-year period and the cost of building accommodation in the five locations reviewed was between 29% and 38% lower than leasing. That is the context of my question.

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