OPW knew of Garda personnel need but opted for building that will be too small

The OPW was informed by An Garda Síochána in January 2016 that a replacement site for the current command centre at Harcourt Square would need to be able to accommodate 1,090 personnel together with 366 vehicles. Picture: Moya Nolan

The Office of Public Works (OPW) was fully aware of the number of gardaí present at the force’s Dublin command centre in 2016 when selecting a replacement site, but still opted for a new building that will be too small.

The OPW, the body which has responsibility for managing the State’s property portfolio, was informed by An Garda Síochána in January 2016 that a replacement site for the current command centre at Harcourt Square would need to be able to accommodate 1,090 personnel together with 366 vehicles.

Minutes of the meeting held on January 8, 2016, at the OPW’s head office in Dublin, attended by OPW commissioner John Sydenham and then Garda interim commissioner Donáll Ó Cualáin, show that at the time the two agencies believed the gardaí would need to relocate from Harcourt Square – its home since the 1970s – by May of that year.

The document, released under freedom of information, details the various sites to which the Harcourt Square complement could be decanted at short notice, including Dublin Castle and Garda HQ in the Phoenix Park.

The need to vacate Harcourt Square had resulted from the building being sold to corporate landlord Hibernia REIT in 2015, which had indicated its intention to redevelop the site upon the Garda lease’s expiry in December 2016.

Emergency lease extension

In the end, an emergency lease extension of six years was agreed at a cost of €36m with Hibernia.

The OPW previously told the Irish Examiner that the new command centre at Military Road in Kilmainham will only accommodate 850 people as the “design of the building is based on the numbers of An Garda Síochána personnel which existed back then”.

Pressed on the matter, the property agency said “the extent of the increase in Garda numbers was not known prior to the lodging of planning permission”.

The newly-released minutes make clear the OPW was fully appraised of the gardaí’s headcount at Harcourt Square at the time Military Road was selected. It is unclear how many vehicles Military Road will accommodate.

Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy, a long-time critic of the decision to pick Military Road, responded to the latest revelation saying she “couldn’t understand how that site was selected”.

“Never mind the fact there isn’t enough room, I’d be very familiar with that site, and access in and out of it is just sub-optimal,” she said.

“But the basics are if you’re building a building it has to be able to accommodate the numbers.”

Ms Murphy said “the thing that’s really offensive is that Harcourt Square was a Nama property, and it wasn’t offered to the gardaí for purchase”. 

The complex was sold from Nama to US firm Starwood in 2014, which in turn sold to Hibernia.

“Instead, they’re going to a publicly-owned site that will end up being way more expensive than it would have been to just buy Harcourt Square outright,” Ms Murphy said.

Should the gardaí fail to vacate Harcourt Square by the time of the lease’s expiry at the end of next year, it’s believed the State will be liable for a multimillion penalty charge owed to Hibernia as compensation for denial of access to its development opportunity.

In response, the OPW said: “Garda numbers fluctuate due to economic circumstances, Government decisions and policing policy under the direction of the Garda Commission of the day.

“The decision with regard to which Garda unit goes to Military Rd is a Garda commissioner decision. It should be borne in mind that not all the units based in Harcourt Square are specialist security units and, therefore, can be located elsewhere.”