Empty building lease costs IDA €9.4m

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.

The comptroller and auditor general said the IDA, which had leased the unused building in Dublin’s Ballsbridge, was only one of a number of public bodies that are locked into such long-term rent agreements.

Seamus McCarthy said: “It’s something that we have raised in relation to a number of organisations particularly where there have been amalgamations. I think some organisations have got caught with longer leases and they have this difficulty.”