Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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149. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will provide a complete list of all buildings that are being leased for use as public buildings; the rents that are being paid on these; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31321/22]

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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A key function of the Office of Public Works (OPW) is to provide accommodation for all Government Departments. In this regard, OPW holds a portfolio of property throughout the country to meet the various operational needs of the Civil Service, the Gardaí and various other State Bodies. The OPW’s objective is to hold, manage and maintain a property portfolio that is aligned to Government delivery needs in terms of size, location, specification, value for money and optimum utilisation. The table below lists the buildings leased by the Office of Public Works for use as public buildings and includes the associated rent per annum for each building. It should be noted that some of the leases are for specified areas within a building rather than the entire building. The OPW is not in a position to provide data on any leased buildings that may be held by other State bodies where those bodies have entered into an agreement directly with a landlord.

By way of further background information, the Deputy will be interested to know that rental expenditure from the OPW vote in 2021 was €103.3m. In addition the OPW recouped almost €15m from State bodies in respect of rent paid on their behalf. The main core of leased buildings are for the purpose of providing office accommodation for the various Government Departments and their Agencies.

At year-end 2021 the Office portfolio comprised of the following:

• 541 buildings• 341 leases in 285 buildings• 256 owned office buildings• Total floor area – 890,489 sq m (9,585,143 sq ft)• 39% Leased - 346,754 sq m (3,732,427 sq ft)• 61% Owned – 543,735 sq m (5,852,715 sq ft)

Blended Working / Office of the FutureThe pandemic highlighted that the Civil Service as a whole now needs to examine its attitude and approach to the workplace. Traditional, total reliance on building-based work locations/solutions into the future now needs to be actively questioned. Offices are likely to remain an essential place of work but now may be used differently by personnel working a hybrid work arrangement whereby they attend the workplace for part of the week only.In March 2021 the Government published “Making Remote Work - National Remote Work Strategy”. The objective of the Strategy is to ensure that remote working is a permanent feature in the Irishworkplace in a way that maximises economic, social and environmental benefits.

Throughout 2021, OPW actively engaged with the Civil Service Management Board to advance a centralised framework on blended working across the Civil Service. This centralised framework forblended working across the Civil Service was published in March 2022. Government Departments are now formalising their own blended working policies in accordance with this centralisedframework.The OPW has been actively engaged with Government Departments and Agencies on how the workplace can be adapted to meeting new operational requirements in the context of hybrid workstrategies. New work arrangements will impact on office accommodation requirements, and will assist in advancing OPW strategies to optimise the accommodation portfolio and consolidate activities over the longer term.