State will pay €26m rent for near-empty site

A state body will pay €26.4m in rent up to 2034 on near-empty prime offices in Dublin for which it cannot find tenants.

The Dáil Public Accounts Committee was told Forfás — the State’s business and science advisory policy board — is paying €1.2m in annual rent, rates and service charges on Carrisbrook House on Pembroke Rd, Ballsbridge, whose sole tenant since 2008 has been the Israeli embassy.

State expenditure on the seven-storey building over the next 21 years would cover all of the €17m savings from the scrapping of the bereavement grant or most of the €32m cuts to jobseeker’s allowance in this week’s budget.