Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Question 72: To ask the Minister for Finance the discussions that have taken place between his Department, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and FÁS regarding the proposed acquisition by FÁS of a new premises in Birr, County Offaly, as part of the Government's decentralisation programme; the conditions that have been attached by his Department to the provision of finance to acquire the site; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39006/05]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Questions relating to FÁS are a matter in the first instance for the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Sanction was sought and given for the acquisition of a site and for the provision of funds to FÁS for this purpose on terms consistent with Government policy.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 73: To ask the Minister for Finance the anticipated costs, in terms of acquiring and equipping premises and other related costs, at the latest date for which figures are available of the original decentralisation programme announced in budget 2004 and the slimmed down version announced in December 2004; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39010/05]

Tom Parlon (Laois-Offaly, Progressive Democrats)
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The Government continues to be committed to the full implementation of the decentralisation programme announced in budget 2004, involving some 10,300 civil and public service jobs in more than 56 locations across some 60 Departments or offices and agencies. My office is in the process of procuring appropriate properties in the designated locations for the Departments and agencies involved, with much progress having been made over the past year. Property acquisition negotiations are completed or are significantly advanced at 23 locations.

The prevailing property market conditions in each geographical area have a significant bearing on the cost of acquiring sites. As the acquisition process is still in progress, it is not possible at this stage to provide a precise estimate of the cost of the site acquisition programme. However, for working purposes only, an indicative figure of €75 million to €100 million, excluding VAT, is being used by the OPW.

The decentralisation implementation group, DIG, in its report of November 2004 announced the names of the Departments and organisations selected as "early movers" and set out a timetable for provision of accommodation. At the same time, the group published a report on the procurement and financial aspects of decentralisation. A further report, in June 2005, updates the timetable announced in November 2004, includes a timetable for the balance of organisations comprehended by the decentralisation programme and sets out commencement and completion dates for accommodation ranging from the final quarter of 2005 to the end of 2009. I am confident that this programme will be successfully implemented.

With regard to the public private partnership approach recommended by the DIG, my office has been developing a comprehensive risk-adjusted costing of project elements to measure the value-for-money of future PPP bids. Expressions of interest will be sought for the first of these major projects early in 2006.

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 that 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.

It is estimated that approximately 210,000sq. m. of office space will be required to accommodate the total numbers included in the programme. Current OPW cost norms — April 2005 — in respect of offices would indicate an average build cost to fit-out standard in the range of €1,800 per square metre to €2,200 per sq. m. in suburban-rural locations. Such figures exclude VAT, professional fees, inflation and site specific considerations. 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 measurements 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 with central Dublin, locations should yield considerable cost savings to the State over time in terms of site costs, capital build costs and maintenance costs.