Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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Question 224: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment when the decision was taken to relocate the offices of Enterprise Ireland from the current occupation in Glasnevin; and the parties involved in that decision. [39744/06]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Enterprise Ireland occupies four separate offices in Dublin. Discussions on bringing all Enterprise Ireland Dublin based staff together in one location have been going on since the Agency was established in 1998. One of the options considered was that of developing the Agency's Glasnevin site to provide accommodation for all Dublin staff. However, when the Government's decentralisation programme was announced in December 2003, the option of investing in new purpose-built premises on the Glasnevin site was deemed to be inconsistent with the proposed decentralisation of some 300 of EI staff to Shannon. Enterprise Ireland nevertheless faced the same operational challenge of occupying four separate locations across Dublin. This, plus the fact that the leaseholds on two of these premises are due to expire in 2008, meant that the Agency had to come up with an office solution that would, on the one hand provide suitable accommodation for the staff currently spread across the four separate Dublin locations, and on the other hand give EI the flexibility to comply with the Government's decentralisation programme.

Having explored a number of possible solutions, the Board of Enterprise Ireland decided that the single site office in the East Point Business Park was the most appropriate from a number of perspectives, including value for money and flexibility. In September of this year, following the Board decision, EI signed a normal commercial 25 year lease on the units in East Point. The lease has in-built break clauses and a clause to enable the Agency to sub-let space, if required.