Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 219: To ask the Minister for Finance if he will indicate the floor area of office space occupied in Dublin by each of the proposed early mover decentralisation locations; the floor area proposed in each case to be provided in the new decentralised location and the current estimate of site acquisition, construction, fit out and commissioning costs involved; and if he will indicate in respect of each the buildings which will be sold or the bases terminated at the Dublin location. [28314/05]

Tom Parlon (Laois-Offaly, Progressive Democrats)
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Under the initial phase of the decentralisation programme approximately 90,000 sq m of office accommodation will be provided in the regions for staff moving out of Dublin. A broadly equivalent amount of space will as a consequence be vacated in the Dublin area. The approach to the disposal of the space to be vacated in Dublin is under consideration. Ultimately, any decisions on disposals will depend on a range of factors including the particular requirements of the Departments remaining in Dublin; the specific circumstances associated with each building including location, quality and design, tenure, office area and whether its leasehold or freehold; the timing of property disposals as sales are directly affected by the prevailing market conditions; and the timing of the relocation of staff to decentralised offices.

The cost of acquiring sites or properties for the early mover Departments is estimated to be in the region of €47 million excluding VAT. Although property solutions will include leasing and fitting out of existing buildings, it is anticipated that, in the majority of cases, the accommodation facilities will be provided by the construction of new office buildings and cost estimation can be approached on this basis. However, in advance of market testing of any procurement methodology, it is possible, at this time, only to assign the most general measurements of cost to such a large-scale, diverse and complex programme.

Current OPW cost norms in respect of offices would indicate an average build cost to fit out standard in the range of €1,800 to €2,200 per square metre. Such figures exclude VAT, professional fees and inflation. In addition, the cost of equipping the accommodation to standard office equipment levels could be estimated at approximately €4,000 per person. This would exclude the cost of information and communication technology and specialised equipment requirements.

Such general measures of cost do not include specialised facility and equipment requirements and other variables, which would arise from the spread of possible procurement methodologies. In addition, general cost indicators of this type show a snapshot in time.

It is self-evident that a firmer scale of costs for the decentralisation programme will only emerge on foot of cost proposals being received from the market. It will be some months yet before sufficient data can be extracted from a suitable range of tender competitions to provide a basis on which more robust estimates of the overall cost of the programme can be made. Nevertheless, it can be estimated that, generally speaking, the cost of providing accommodation in provincial, compared to central Dublin, locations should yield considerable cost savings to the State over time in terms of site costs, capital build costs and indeed maintenance costs.