Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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116. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the full rental and-or purchase costs, maintenance and-or upkeep and-or alteration costs associated with all property outside the State that his Department has an interest in, that is, properties that are embassies, Consulates General and official accommodations by accommodation type, cost per year per property and location of property for the past five years to date in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26586/19]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department delivers Ireland’s foreign policy objectives through our Embassy network. At present, my Department is responsible for 159 properties comprising Embassies, Consulate Generals, Permanent Missions, Permanent Representations, Secretariats, Representative Offices and official accommodation.

As part of the duty of care to staff, their families and visitors to our buildings for meetings and functions, the Department must ensure that security and health and safety standards are met, as well as provision of universal access facilities. The Department maintains appropriate health, safety and security standards in our properties overseas while also applying any additional international standards in the location in question, as necessary. All refurbishment and maintenance at missions are conducted in line with the Department’s procurement obligations under Government public tendering and contracting rules, including both national and EU public procurement thresholds.

The full rental and or purchase costs, maintenance and/or upkeep and or alteration costs for 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 are outlined in the first table.

A list of offices by type and location are set out in the second table.

The purchase costs of properties purchased by the State from 2014 to 2018 are listed in the final table. The purchases were official accommodation in Lilongwe, land to build Ireland House Tokyo in Japan and purchase of an adjacent building to the Embassy of Ireland in Washington to allow for its expansion.

Table 1. Cost per Mission (€) 2014-2018

Table 2. List of Offices by Type and Location

Table 3. Purchase cost of properties 2014-2018