Educational and training board to pay €2m rent on building it does not use

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.

Galway and Roscommon ETB has a lease on a property in Galway City that will not expire until March 31, 2027, but the body has not used the building in over a decade.

The Hynes Building on St Augustine St was the former headquarters of the Co Galway VEC until the body left the premises on December 31, 2004. The lease started on September 10, 1992, and does not contain any break clauses.

While the ETB is recouping €25,186 a year by subletting a portion of the building, it is paying an annual rent of €88,055 on the property, meaning it will spend over €1.9m in rent from the time it ceased using the building until the lease expires.

Dublin and Dún Laoghaire ETB will spend €112,580 leasing a former creche it no longer uses on Quinns Rd, Shankill.

The body took a 10-year lease on the property in 2008, at a cost of €55,290 a year, but will exercise a break option next September, two years after it ceased to use the building.

Leases taken by Waterford and Wexford ETB on properties it was not using recently expired.

It commenced leases on Iberius House in Wexford on October 10, 1984, and July 6, 1998, but ceased using the property in July 2006. However it offset the €67,465 annual rent by subletting the former HQ of Co Wexford VEC.

It took in €51,000 a year subletting from July 2006 to June 2008, and €7,000 a year until the leases expired in October 2014.

The details emerged in correspondence from the department to the Public Accounts Committee.

A spokesperson for Galway and Roscommon ETB was unavailable for comment.