asked the Minister for Finance the years in which (a) the Department of Labour building in Mespil Road and (b) the buildings occupied by the Department of the Public Service on the west side of Lower Kildare Street were completed; the respective nature of the work which has required the entire fronts of those buildings to be covered in scaffolding; the estimated cost of the work in each case; and whether, in each case, the work or any part of it was advertised for tenders.
Written Answers. - Government Department's Building.
644.
Davitt House, the Department of Labour building in Mespil Road, was completed in the mid-1960s. Scaffolding at the front of the building was necessitated by investigations by structural engineers into the reasons for failures in some of the building elements. The report of the engineers was received yesterday and is being examined.
The building occupied by the Department of the Public Service in Kildare Street is owned by the State and is part of a complex completed in the mid-1970s. The brickwork in the entire complex was in danger of falling away from the main structure of the building, and the owners of the rest of the complex engaged a contractor to carry out remedial work at their property. For reasons of convenience, safety and cost, and with the approval of the Government Contracts Committee, the same contractor was engaged (without advertising for tenders) to carry out the appropriate work at the Department of the Public Service. The cost of that work will be about £110,000.