Vol. 451 No. 6
23 Mr. O'Malley asked the Minister for Finance the total amount of money spent by the State on rental of buildings and lands, rental of office equipment and leasing of office equipment; and his policy in relation to the acquisition of lands, buildings and equipment as opposed to leasing them. [6963/95]
43 Ms O'Donnell asked the Minister for Finance the total amount of money spent by the State on rental of buildings and lands, rental of office equipment and leasing of office equipment; and his policy in relation to the acquisition of lands, buildings and equipment as opposed to leasing them. [6964/95]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 23 and 43 together.
The total expenditure by the Commissioners of Public Works on rent of buildings and lands in 1994 amounted to approximately £23 million. This would represent the vast bulk of State rental. There could be small amounts involved in rental outside the Office of Public Works, such as by the Departments of Defence and Justice.
A whole range of factors are taken into consideration when deciding whether purchase, leasing or the undertaking of building work should be adopted to meet the State's needs in regard to buildings and lands in a particular case. These factors include the availability of the necessary financial resources, which could be considerable, the nature and likely duration of the particular service, economic considerations, the state of the property market, etc.
As regards office equipment, the established practice is not to engage in leasing. This policy is based on the consideration that purchase is generally the better economic option. It will be appreciated that equipment purchases would generally be for smaller amounts.
