State cuts annual rental bill by €30m

Property rental costs for State agencies have been cut by tens of millions of euro, ministers claim.

Brian Hayes, the Office of Public Works minister, said the Government rental bill for next year will be just below €100m — down from €131m in 2009.

Mr Hayes said that 150 leases, covering 500,000 sq ft, had been given up in 2012 and the OPW was not paying for any unoccupied premises.

The next stage of the efficiency drive will see the launch of an online database of about 2,000 properties next spring to make it easier for State agencies to find available space without going to the private sector.

“That’s going to be a huge resource for the public sector as we work out building plans for the future,” said Mr Hayes. “About four years ago, the average cost of renting buildings in the public sector was about €131m. This year, it’s now down to €108m and by next year we will have that figure under €100m.”

He revealed that around 40 Garda stations will go on sale by the autumn, while up to six more will be reserved for public sector use.

Mr Hayes also said a new type of thinking was needed in the public service inorder to maximise available space.

“We need to get out of the silo mentality,” he said. “We need to introduce open plan office accommodation within the public sector.

“We also need the best standard of office accommodation.”

As part of the space-cutting drive, the storage and management of paper records will switch to an electronic format.