(Cavan) asked the Minister for Finance if he will give in respect of each Department of State particulars of all office accommodation rented by the Department in the city of Dublin; and the rent payable in each case in respect of it.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Rented Government Offices.
14.
The provision and allocation of office accommodation for Government Departments is generally a matter for the Office of Public Works. In the city of Dublin such accommodation is comprised in some 140 buildings or groups of buildings most of which are held under agreements varying from short term tenancies to leases for ever. The annual rents payable vary considerably from nominal sums under leases for ever and fee farm grants, to present day commercial figures for accommodation in recently erected office blocks. The provision in Subhead F3, Rent, Rates, etc., of the Public Works and Buildings Vote for the current financial year amounts to £340,000, and the breakdown of this figure between the Departments concerned appears on page 39 of the Estimates Volume. Approximately £155,000 of this figure relates to rents of premises in the Dublin city area.
It is not the practice to disclose the amount of the rents payable in respect of individual properties as the figures concerned are confidential as between landlord and tenant, and the Deputy will appreciate that it would not be in the public interest to do so.
(Cavan): Having regard to the fact that various Government Departments seem to be acquiring each new skyscraper as it is built in Dublin, will the Minister specify the accommodation, even if he does not consider it proper to specify the rent payable?
I do not know what the Deputy means by specifying the accommodation.
(Cavan): As I understand the reply, the Parliamentary Secretary simply contents himself with giving an overall figure for the amount of rent payable. Will the Parliamentary Secretary consider giving me the address of each office rented by each Department?
If the Deputy gives me notice of the question, I will try to get the information for him.
(Cavan): I submit that I have asked for that information in this question.
I have not got that information now and it is not the practice to give the rent in each individual case. The extraction of that information would take considerable time.
(Cavan): Surely each Department knows where its office accommodation is situated? Will the Parliamentary Secretary give me that information?
This is hardly a fair supplementary under this heading.
(Cavan): It is not a supplementary; that information is specifically asked for in the question.
Could the Parliamentary Secretary give the cost per person accommodated?
All these questions are completely different.
Surely one will undertake to circulate the address of Government Departments in Dublin which are not accommodated in Government-owned property? Or have we reached the stage at which the offices are disappearing into anonymity and nobody is to know where they are?
That question does not arise.
The Parliamentary Secretary seems to be under a misapprehension in regard to the question asked. The question is:
To ask the Minister for Finance if he will give in respect of each Department of State particulars of all office accommodation rented by the Department in the city of Dublin ...
We could circulate it in the Official Report.
Fair enough. If the Parliamentary Secretary does that, it will be a step in the right direction.
(Cavan): Is the Parliamentary Secretary now undertaking to circulate that information in the Report?
A list of all the offices.