Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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105. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the acreage in each local authority area owned by the Office of Public Works; the portion of the land that are heritage sites; the portion in use for public services; the portion that is vacant; the portion that is vacant and suitable for residential development; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48002/19]

Kevin Moran (Longford-Westmeath, Independent)
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The Office of Public Works (OPW) manages over 2,500 properties on behalf of the State which include office accommodation, heritage properties, visitor centres, Garda stations, warehouses and sundry others.

I am advised by the Commissioners of Public Works that some of the information sought by the Deputy is not readily available and is currently being collated as completely as possible. A detailed response will issue to the Deputy as soon as it is available.

Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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106. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the acreage of property owned by the OPW that has been transferred to local authorities for residential development in each year since 2015, by local authority in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48003/19]

Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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107. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if the OPW has undertaken an audit of its property portfolio to assess the number of properties that would be suitable for residential development; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48004/19]

Kevin Moran (Longford-Westmeath, Independent)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 106 and 107 together.

The role of the Commissioners of Public Works is to provide office accommodation for use by Government Departments and other State bodies. In addition, the Commissioners of Public Works, on behalf of the State, manage a diverse portfolio of heritage properties, visitor centres, Garda stations, former customs posts, former coastguard stations and sundry other properties located throughout the country.While the Commissioners of Public Works engage with the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government and local authorities where there may be surplus properties in our ownership that could be made available to them, the provision of social/affordable housing is not a function of the Commissioners.

In the past two years, the OPW has provided information on properties to the Department and, more recently, to the Land Development Agency, who assess those properties for suitability for residential use.

This engagement process identified a number of OPW-owned properties as being feasible for adaption for residential use. These include:

Properties transferred

Properties in process of transferring

The following expressions of interest have been made to the OPW to acquire sites that are surplus to our requirements, for residential development –

Expressions of interest in property

The OPW actively manages its property portfolio on an ongoing basis. If a particular site or property is deemed to be surplus to requirement it is offered for transfer to public bodies such as the local authorities prior to any decision being taken on disposal. On the establishment of the Land Development Agency a full examination of OPW properties was completed to identify any that might be suitable for residential development. From that examination, the Land Development Agency only identified the Central Mental Hospital as a site suitable for residential development when the relocation of the Hospital by the HSE takes place.