Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

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?

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I thank Deputy Stanley for raising this matter. I understand his interest in it as a constituency issue and from a national perspective. Under the previous Government's decentralisation programme, it was originally intended to relocate approximately 11,000 civil and public servants in 50 different organisations to 56 locations around the country. As the Deputy is aware, that Government achieved the relocation of slightly more than 3,000 of those 11,000 officials. As he rightly pointed out, the then Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy, boldly set out the Government's plans in a famous Budget Statement that was made six or seven months before the famous local elections of 2004. The current Government inherited the need to resolve this legacy. Decentralisation is logical if there is a sensible business plan and it is in the interests of those who provide and avail of the service in question. This issue of the legacy I mentioned has to be resolved.

The original decentralisation programme was a major undertaking, by any standards. The Office of Public Works was tasked with completing the property aspects of the programme. This involved a combination of various initiatives including the acquisition of development sites, the design and tendering of building projects, the construction of buildings, the leasing and fitting out of offices and the purchase of existing buildings. Sites were earmarked or acquired in 26 locations. Sites owned by the OPW were selected in five of these locations - Athlone, the Curragh, na Forbacha, Sligo and Monaghan. At a further 11 locations - Carlow, Killarney, Longford, Newcastle West, Thurles, Trim, Drogheda, Portlaoise, Newbridge, Wexford and Waterford - sites were acquired from the relevant local authority or State agency. Ten privately owned sites were purchased, at Buncrana, Cavan, Claremorris, Clonakilty, Dungarvan, Edenderry, Mullingar, Roscommon, Tipperary, and Thomastown. The OPW purchased an office block for 130 staff in Tullamore. The block is now occupied by the Department of Finance.

New buildings were constructed in 12 locations - Longford, Sligo, na Forbacha, Athlone, Killarney, Trim, Wexford, Newbridge, Newcastle West, Clonakilty, Buncrana and Roscommon. In eight locations - Ballina, Carrick-on-Shannon, Kilrush, Listowel, Loughrea, Navan, Limerick and Cork - long-term leases were taken out. The annual rent on these permanent leases is approximately €3.6 million. Short-term advance accommodation was provided in 11 locations - Athy, Carlow, Cavan, Claremorris, Dundalk, Tubbercurry, Portarlington, Portlaoise, Roscrea, Thurles and Tipperary - to facilitate Departments with pressing accommodation needs in advance of the provision of permanent offices. The annual rent for these short-term leases is approximately €2.6 million. In direct response to Deputy Stanley's question, I reiterate that the annual cost of the short-term leases is approximately €2.6 million and the annual cost of the long-term leases is approximately €3.6 million.

In general, the cost of the decentralisation programme to date has been more than offset by the disposal of properties. The proceeds amount to €374 million and the costs have been €352 million. We have spent €352 million, but we have obtained €374 million from the sale or disposal of properties. In the round, the State has not lost. As the Deputy pointed out, this is obviously a complicated process. It is a matter for the new Government to determine whether the previous Government's announcement, which paused the decentralisation programme, in effect, is to be reinitiated. I do not want to pre-empt that decision. It is clear there is a cost issue in this regard. At a time when the State is seeking funds, expending further funds in this area is obviously problematic, as Deputy Stanley will be aware. I have taken a detailed note of the points the Deputy made regarding his local area and will relay them to the Office of Public Works as well as the lead Departments as they effectively contract the OPW for the purpose of acquiring sites.