Questions over site selection of new garda HQ site

The current €86.3m location, on a State-owned site at Military Rd in south Dublin, was not included on that initial shortlist. Pictures: Moya Nolan

The site of the new Dublin garda HQ was not included on an initial shortlist agreed by the various stakeholders.

The Office of Public Works (OPW) and An Garda Síochána ran a site evaluation project, lasting more than a year, for the building of the new command centre, which ended in early 2015, according to multiple sources.

A number of sites were recommended in order of suitability as part of that process, with the results communicated to garda management at that time.

The current €86.3m location, on a State-owned site at Military Rd in south Dublin, was not included on that initial shortlist.

The OPW has denied that a separate site selection process had taken place, stating to the Irish Examiner that the evaluation panel — made up of officials from the Department of Justice, the OPW (including State Architect Ciarán O’Connor) and An Garda Síochána — which selected Military Rd in November 2015 was the “only formal grouping constituted in order to assess the alternative site options for An Garda Síochána’s operations at Harcourt Square”.

It said six sites were evaluated as part of that process: Military Rd; The Gateway site at Newlands Cross; Garda Headquarters in the Phoenix Park; the Phoenix Park Racecourse; Thornton Hall Farm, and a site on the Naas Rd.

All of those properties, with the exception of Military Rd, had been considered as part of the initial selection process.

Meanwhile, it is understood that the locations which An Garda Síochána most favoured from the initial process were three privately-owned sites on Dublin’s Long Mile Rd, which are known as the Pino Harris sites named for the founder of Ireland’s largest truck- importing group.

The Military Rd project has come in for sustained scrutiny in recent months after it emerged that the new build will not be large enough to accommodate the number of employees housed at the current command centre at Harcourt Square in the city centre.

The Military Rd project has come in for sustained scrutiny in recent months after it emerged that the new build will not be large enough to accommodate the number of employees housed at the current command centre at Harcourt Square in the city centre.

There will be room for just 850 personnel at the six-story building under construction at Military Rd which, the OPW explained previously, was due to it having no insight into the growth of Garda numbers in the following years.

The project had been planned, the body explained, using a headcount taken up to eight years ago.

There were just under 1,100 people working in the current command centre at Harcourt Square in the south city centre in 2016, meaning that the current build would not have been in a position to handle that number of people even at that point.

A number of garda subunits currently headquartered at Harcourt Square will not be catered for in the move.

Despite this, the OPW said that “extension potential was noted as a garda requirement and was considered as part of the assessment”.

A spokesperson said the northeastern part of the Military Rd site is “suitable for a building of 16 storeys”. However, the current plan is for a building with a maximum of six storeys.

The new Garda build is under a deal of time pressure, given that the force’s lease at Harcourt Square is due to expire at the end of 2022, with a multimillion-euro penalty expected to apply should the gardaí not have vacated the site by that date.

The OPW has repeatedly insisted that the new building at Military Rd will be finished and fully fitted out by September of next year.