The IDA has been forced to pay €9.4m to buy out a lease on an empty building that had been costing the State €1m a year. The Public Accounts Committee heard that the agency was locked into a lease which cost €1m a year despite the fact it was not being used.

An educational and training board (ETB) will spend nearly €2m on rent for a building it does not use, the Department of Education has revealed.

MORE than a dozen new second-level schools will begin classes for the first time in 2013 and 2014, mostly in the greater Dublin region.