Tom Parlon (Laois-Offaly, Progressive Democrats)

I welcome the opportunity to discuss the property plans of the Office of Public Works and I thank Independent Senators for proposing the debate.

The Office of Public Works is 150 years old and in that time a substantial portfolio in excess of 1,800 properties has been acquired by the State. It is a rich tapestry which includes everything from small rural Garda stations to large urban office blocks, from small Garda quarters to Farmleigh Estate, from sites of little monetary value to those which are worth millions of euro.

At the beginning of the 21st century, there was a need to take strategic look at the future of the State property portfolio and examine ways to ensure that we always have a modern and dynamic State infrastructure. In many instances, what was state-of-the-art 40 years ago is now creaking at the seams and some properties that were in full usage at that time are now lying idle. I decided to implement a new approach to ensure that the maximum value was extracted from the State property portfolio. In the past there was a non-commercial approach to State property. However, there is little point in having huge tracts of State land lying idle when it could be put to profitable use for the country.

The first step in the process of transforming State assets commenced with a full audit of the property portfolio. This was a comprehensive look at the status and value of all the properties and it acts as a guidebook to the hidden value of State property. Following this, I launched the transforming State assets initiative in March of this year. The objective of the programme is to transform the State property portfolio by extracting maximum value. The programme will include straight sell-offs of sites, public private partnerships, joint ventures and land swap deals. It will include a regional mix and a focus on both large urban, small urban and rural sites. Its objective is for value gained from the process to be reinvested in new State infrastructure.

The first site offered in the programme is a classic example of the latent potential that exists in the State property portfolio. In the swinging sixties, if any of us remember them—