Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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Question 111: 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. [39246/06]

Tom Parlon (Laois-Offaly, Progressive Democrats)
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The Government is committed to the full implementation of the Decentralisation Programme announced in Budget 2004, involving some 10.300 civil and public service jobs in more that 56 locations across some 60 Government Departments/Office and Agencies.

My Office is in the process of procuring appropriate properties in the designed locations for the departments and agencies involved, with much progress having been made to date. Property acquisition negotiations are completed or are significantly advanced at 35 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, and for working purposes only, an indicative figure of €75 to €100 million (excluding VAT) is being used by the OPW.

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 actual 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. 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 to €2,200 per square metre for suburban / rural locations and €2,500 and €3,000 per square metre in city / town centre locations. Such figures exclude VAT, professional fees and inflation.

In addition, the cost of equipping the accommodation to standard office equipment levels should be estimated at c.€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 actual cost proposals being received from the market. It will be some months yet before sufficient date 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. However, on the basis of experience to date, there is no reason to adjust the original estimates for the overall programme.