Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 26 October 2023
6. Deputy Cathal Crowe asked the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform if the OPW has plans to undertake any substantial building work in Shannon, County Clare, specifically remediation works on the Department of Transport's motor taxation office and the passport screening area in Shannon Airport's arrivals hall, operated by An Garda Síochána. [46933/23]
View answerWhat plans does the Minister of State have in terms of the Office of Public Works, OPW, carrying out substantial capital works in the Shannon town area? Specifically, I would like to know whether the Minister of State has any plans for the motor taxation office and passport control in the arrivals hall of the airport.
The Department of Transport operates the driver and vehicle computer services from a State-owned building in Shannon town centre, that is, the Shannon vehicle registration unit, VRU. The building requires significant investment to address building fabric issues that have arisen over a number of years. This investment was under consideration when an opportunity to acquire a substantial property consisting of offices and warehousing in the Shannon area was identified. The property was acquired by the Office of Public Works and has the potential to meet the long-term requirements of the Department of Transport and other State bodies in the area. A master-planning exercise for the newly acquired building was under way when, in 2022, the building was allocated to the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth for possible conversion to residential use, subject to a cost-benefit analysis and stakeholder engagement, as part of the emergency response to the increased demand for accommodation for those seeking protection in Ireland.
As a result of the ongoing issues, it is the Office of Public Works's intention to decant existing staff currently operating from Shannon VRU to an alternative location and it is continuing to work closely with the Department of Transport to identify a suitable option. A potential solution has been identified in the Government offices in Ennis and the OPW is engaging with all stakeholders, the Department of Transport and existing occupants to ensure the requirements of all our clients are met in the most efficient manner. The Office of Public Works is also continuing to work with the Department of Transport to identify any further measures that can be put in place to mitigate the impact of the building fabric issues in the current building. Remedial work has been undertaken in recent weeks to assist the Department of Transport in managing the needs of the staff in the building at present. The long-term use of that building is under consideration.
The Shannon Airport Authority provides accommodation to a number of State bodies in the arrivals hall area of Shannon Airport to provide services that are essential to the successful operation of an international airport like Shannon. The OPW understands the Shannon Airport Authority is planning to undertake redevelopment works to much of the existing terminal, and the ongoing provision of accommodation for the State bodies will form an important part of any redevelopment. The OPW is engaging with all our clients, including An Garda Síochána and the Shannon Airport Authority, to ensure the longer term accommodation requirements will be adequately provided for in the proposed redevelopment of the arrivals hall.
Earlier this year, I visited the motor tax office in Shannon with the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers. It is in a deplorable state. There are basins and buckets in various parts of the corridor. There is water dripping down on some of the computer servers that house the national database for motor taxation. I do not think it is a very safe environment for the people who work in there. It is quite a miserable environment. It is cold and wet at the best of times. It is unsafe when water is dripping down on computers, workstations and the servers which, as I said, hold the national database. People were very disappointed to hear that unit 153 in the industrial estate in Shannon was being repurposed and given over the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth because this has very much been earmarked for many years. I fear now the reconfiguration taking place in unit 153 means it can never be used again for any State use beyond accommodation. It is in the middle of an industrial estate. I do not think it is an ideal place at all to be accommodating people.
The motor taxation office is a national asset. It manages the whole system for the country. It needs to be better appropriated than where it is at the moment. I do not think Ennis is as viable an option as the report would suggest. It needs to be in Shannon and the Minister of State needs to find a suitable building in Shannon.
I do not disagree with much of what Deputy Crowe said, but finding an available building in an area which, as the Deputy knows as well as I do, has literally gone through an explosion in the number of people who work there, thankfully, is not easy. That being said, we have carried out works in the Department of Transport building to make sure the fabric of the building is protected and the working conditions are being allowed to be properly maintained.
With respect to the Shannon 153 building, as the Deputy and I and other Members of the House know, every Department, including our own, was asked to examine its portfolio buildings to make sure any building that was surplus to requirements at a particular time or that could be made available at a particular time was considered for the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. In that case, the Department of Transport building was proffered as one of those, specifically the Shannon 153 building. It does create an issue with regard to the Department of Transport but the Office of Public Works, working with the Department, is committed to trying to resolve it.
I could understand if unit 153 involved some light reconfiguration, but what is going on in there at the moment is heavy reconstruction. This shell of a building will never be able to be used by any other Department now after this work has happened unless the Department gets in the big diggers and pulls it all out again.
Going back to the airport, that passport control is the gateway to Ireland. It is where people first interact with Shannon Airport and the Wild Atlantic Way. Most of the airport has been overhauled in recent years with some really nice capital redevelopment refurbishment works, but that passport control area is for An Garda Síochána, and my understanding is it has always been OPW controlled. It does not fit in with the rest of the shiny airport. It needs some remedial work. It needs to be brought up to a more modern standard. We heard that is in the pipeline at some point. I would love to hear if there are some positive indications in terms of what the Minister of State has planned there.
I do not disagree with the Deputy. I have gone through it recently and it is in need of an overhaul. The Shannon Airport Authority has acknowledged the fact it has plans for the entire arrivals hall. We will work with it to make sure any works are done in conjunction with the overall Shannon Airport Authority's master plan for the arrivals hall rather than doing piecemeal or isolated work. We would not be doing that because as the Deputy said a while ago with respect to another building, the last thing we want to do is tear it out when Shannon Airport Authority might come along with a reconfigured arrivals hall that might not necessarily sit with what plans we might have regarding the accommodation we must provide for the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, An Garda Síochána, the Revenue Commissioners, customs and others.
