Audit of publicly-owned buildings outside Dublin finds average occupancy rate of 30%

Comptroller and Auditor General Seamus McCarthy (pictured) said the OPW 'seems to be dragging its heels on analysing and publishing' the new data. File photo: Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie

An audit of publicly-owned properties has found some buildings with an occupancy rate as low as 30%.

The Office of Public Works (OPW), the agency responsible for managing the State’s property portfolio, said it conducted a series of ‘occupancy surveys’ between 2023 and 2025 on 20 buildings outside Dublin on a single day, returning an average occupancy of 30%.

In an update to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the OPW said that a second audit of 47 properties in Dublin city centre, conducted over two separate days, found an average occupancy of 45%.

The OPW said that, given the surveys had been conducted over a limited time period, they could be considered as “spot checks” only, adding that a more comprehensive investigation would require monitoring on “a continuous basis”.

It said that under new Government rules, occupancy levels will be collated on an ongoing basis across the portfolio, but added that no such publication will take place before January of 2027, as two years’ worth of sample data would be required to draw “meaningful” conclusions.

'A bit disingenuous'

That argument was given short shrift by Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) Seamus McCarthy, a permanent witness to the PAC, who described the assertion as “a bit disingenuous”, adding that the OPW “seems to be dragging its heels on analysing and publishing” the new data.

He said he had previously suggested that occupancy data be analysed using comparable data sets. 

“What I said was that it should publish the information with comparatives. It seems to be hanging on to the comparative thing to delay publication for another year. It seems to think it has to have two years to compare one year with the other,” he said.

Chair of the PAC John Brady described the sporadic audit of a low number of properties as “a very sloppy process”.

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“We need to get more information on it, and we need to get a clear breakdown in terms of that random selection of 20 properties, which is bizarre and totally unsatisfactory,” he said.

The OPW has been criticised regarding the levels of occupancy of some publicly-owned buildings in recent times.

Last September, a special report by the C&AG said that the OPW had spent more than €12m on the rental of unoccupied office space in Dublin across 2024.

The two buildings in question — the Distillers Building in Smithfield and Bishop’s Square in the south city centre — had both been either partially or entirely vacant for several years at that time, despite multi-million euro leases being in place.