This reply relates to leases held by the Commissioners of Public Works who have
achieved savings in annual rent every year since 2008 through a targeted lease rationalisation programme, reducing both the annual rental bill and the property footprint along with targeted rent review negotiations. Overall, the cumulative value of savings delivered under the lease rationalisation and re-negotiation programme, between 2008 and 2014 is €110,822,292 and has involved the surrender of approximately 1.2 million square feet of accommodation. Annual rental expenditure, nationally, has been reduced from €132 million in 2008 to an estimated €86 million in 2015.
Between 2011 and 2015, annual rents in Dublin have been reduced by €13.68 million. The number of leases in Dublin during the same period has reduced from 151 to 135. It should be noted that in 2012, the OPW took over 70 leases countrywide from FÁS and the Health Service Executive (HSE) on behalf of the Department of Social Protection and a proportion of these were in Dublin.
The lease rationalisation strategy pursued in the last 5 years has shifted the ratio of owned to leased office accommodation from 60% leased to 40% owned to the current ratio of c. 40% leased to 60% owned. This rationalisation programme is continuing and will generate further savings in the coming years.
Recent legislation banning "upward only" rent review clauses from leases is not retrospective, so leases entered into prior to the legislation have not been impacted. Many of the leases surrendered in Dublin in the last five years contained "upward only" rent review clauses.