Written Answers. - Departmental Properties.
Pat Rabbitte
Question:
20
Mr. Rabbitte
asked the
Minister for Finance
the progress made to date by the Office of Public Works in its examination of the State property portfolio with a view to identifying vacant, under-utilised or surplus property; when he expects that the examination will be concluded; the properties which have to date been sold or identified as being suitable for sale; if the Office of Public Works has advised that it is unlikely to seek to dispose of significant amounts of State property in the near future; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
[30103/03]
The examination of the State property portfolio by the Commissioners of Public Works with a view to identifying vacant, under-utilised or surplus property is an ongoing process.
To date it has produced a number of properties deemed suitable for disposal-redevelopment. These are as follows: (a) Devereaux Hotel, recently sold; (b) Lad Lane, Baggot Street, formerly the maintenance depot for the building maintenance services of Office of Public Works – it is intended to sell this property on the open market, at the appropriate time; (c) St. Johns Road-Military Road, a planning application was submitted to Dublin City Council on 12 June 2003 for a mixed-use development, on a site jointly owned by Office of Public Works and Eircom, at St. John's Road West-Military Road near Heuston Station – in addition to the St. John's Road West-Military Road planning application, an application will be submitted, in the near future, for a mixed-use development, on an adjacent site wholly owned by State bodies at Military Road-St. John's Road; (d) Infirmary Road, East, which was formerly used by the Department of Defence – it has been decided, in accordance with a Government decision, to develop it for affordable housing; (e) Jamestown Road, Inchicore, currently the location for Office of Public Works's central engineering workshop – this site also will be used for affordable housing purposes; (f) Tallaght Garda Station – planning applications are being finalised to maximise the use of this site; (g) a number of smaller properties e.g. former Garda Stations have been disposed of or are being disposed of.
I propose to initiate an exchange programme whereby clusters of old RIC buildings which currently accommodate gardaí will be exchanged for new purpose-built basic unit Garda Stations in the same location. The equity exchange programme will involve Garda Stations in Tipperary and Limerick. It had been planned to bring forward a list of other properties for disposal or development over the next 12 months. This list now falls to be reviewed in light of the announcement on decentralisation.
As you know an implementation committee, reporting to a special Cabinet sub-committee, has been appointed by the Minister for Finance to oversee the production of a decentralisation plan by the Office of Public Works. This plan will address,inter alia, the possible future uses of surplus property in the Dublin area following decentralisation. If there are no suitable alternative State uses for any of the surplus properties, they will be considered for disposal. The implementation committee is due to report by the end of March 2004. Any decisions on future disposal of property, especially in relation to Dublin based property, will be made in the context of the committee's proposals.
