I am advised that the number of Property Registration Authority (PRA) staff currently located in the in the Setanta Centre, Nassau Street is 84. The property is leased by the Office of Public Works (OPW) at a cost of €996,164 per annum.
The lease for this accommodation expires in March 2013 and staff will have to be re-located before the expiry of the lease. The PRA has been in continuing discussions with the OPW to finalise the proposed location of staff. The OPW are now looking at a suitable location. However, it is unlikely that the proposed location will be sufficient to accommodate all the staff currently located in the Setanta Centre and some staff will have to be re-located to the PRA's Chancery Street offices.
Following the Government Review on the viability of all decentralisation projects, it was decided, in the case of the Property Registration Authority, that the Authority should remain in situ in the new premises located at the Golf Links Road in Roscommon. The building was originally designed to accommodate 230. The number of PRA staff currently located in the Roscommon building is 77. Due to a number of factors the PRA has not been in a position to locate the planned number of staff in this building. These include the moratorium on recruitment, a proposed redeployment programme and the ongoing reduction in staff numbers required under the Employment Control Framework (ECF). In view of these circumstances, the PRA has been working with the Office of Public Works to ensure the optimum utilisation of the accommodation by other suitable public sector occupants.
For some months now, a small number of staff from the Roscommon Enterprise Board has been occupying part of the accommodation. Approximately 50 staff from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine are scheduled to re-locate to the Golf Links Road building in the early part of December 2012. The PRA will continue to work with the OPW to seek opportunities to fully maximise the occupancy of this building.
