PAC chair says Drew Harris €600,000 residence remaining empty "defies belief"

Former Commissioner Harris left his post last September after a seven-year term.

The chair of the Public Accounts Committee has said that the fact a residence used by former Garda Commissioner Drew Harris remains empty more than six months after Mr Harris left office “defies belief”.

The OPW has confirmed that the former Commissioner’s Phoenix Park residence Spa Lodge, on which more than €600,000 was spent in refurbishments and security upgrades prior to Mr Harris taking up residence, is one of 11 State-owned properties in the park currently lying idle.

The agency, which bears responsibility for management of the State’s public property portfolio, recently informed PAC chair John Brady of Sinn Fein that 11 properties are currently vacant in the Phoenix Park, which have been empty for time periods varying from the early 2000s up to September of 2025.

Former Commissioner Harris left his post last September after a seven-year term.

The OPW said in its statement to Mr Brady that the 11 properties vacant “require upgrading (or) refurbishment or and not currently suitable for occupation”.

However, when queried as to whether or not those properties include Mr Harris’s former residence a spokesperson confirmed that “the property previously occupied by the former Garda Commissioner is one of the eleven properties in the Phoenix Park” referred to.

It is unclear why Spa Lodge is currently unfit for habitation given it has already been refurbished, nor why it has lain empty for the past six months.

Addressing the issue, Mr Brady said that “it defies belief that a property which has recently had €400,000 spent on refurbishments and a further €212,000 spent on security measures has been left vacant for 6 months and counting”.

“The fact that this property has been empty since the former Garda Commissioner left his post indicates that this residence was identified specifically for him and works carried out accordingly,” he said adding that uncertainty over when those works were first agreed to “creates questions over the integrity of that process”.

It previously emerged at PAC that Spa Lodge incurred rental costs of €21,000 each year over the course of Mr Harris’s term as Commissioner, with that rental level remaining unchanged across that full period. It is unclear whether Mr Harris or An Garda Siochana paid the rent in question.

Mr Brady also took issue with the fact a further 10 State-owned properties remain empty in the Phoenix Park, describing as “outrageous” the fact that some of those buildings have been vacant for close to 25 years.

“This all demonstrates the OPW’s complete inability to effectively manage the State’s property portfolio, and ultimately this Government’s chronic wastage of public money,” he said.

The Irish Examiner last week revealed that an OPW audit of 20 buildings outside Dublin, conducted between 2023 and 2025, found that they returned an average occupancy of just 30%, while a second audit of 47 properties in Dublin city centre had an average occupancy of 45%.

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

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.