C&AG: Number of OPW retirees living in its residential properties in Phoenix Park jumps by 83%

Spa Lodge in the Phoenix Park was used to accommodate former Garda Commissioner Drew Harris but is now vacant despite €600,000 spent on refurbishments and security upgrades.

The number of retirees from the Office of Public Works living in its residential properties in the Phoenix Park jumped by 83% from 2015 — in direct contravention of the agency’s own policies.

An investigation by the Comptroller and Auditor General found since the OPW established a residential property management policy in 2015 — requiring all retiring employees must vacate the premises they rent from the agency — the number of such workers has ballooned.

The investigation into the residential property portfolio concerned 94 such buildings the OPW owns around the country.

Some 57 of those properties are located within Dublin's Phoenix Park, with OPW workers assigned to maintenance roles within the park typically living in the houses in question.

However, the C&AG probe found half of the 94 properties in question are not included in the OPW’s official asset register, with the agency unable to explain why this was the case.

Just under 40%, or at least 37 of the houses in question, are currently lying vacant, meanwhile. One of those vacant properties, Spa Lodge in the Phoenix Park, was used to accommodate former Garda Commissioner Drew Harris during his seven-year tenure up to September 2025.

Last February, the chair of the Public Accounts Committee John Brady said it ”defies belief” that Spa Lodge had then lain vacant for six months, particularly given more than €600,000 had been spent on refurbishments and security upgrades prior to Mr Harris taking up residence.

Of the half of owned properties missing from the OPW’s own register of properties, roughly two thirds are managed by State bodies other than the OPW, such as An Garda Síochána.

The investigation found no formal contracts for that administration are held by the OPW.

The OPW manages more than 2,500 properties on behalf of the State. 

The C&AG’s investigation further found at least two properties listed as vacant by the OPW were not in fact empty, with one of them being used for the storage of miscellaneous items by the occupier of the adjacent house.

The other supposedly vacant property had undergone “works” to join it to an adjacent house “creating an enlarged residential property”.

While that work had been done without the knowledge of the OPW, the C&AG said ”there is evidence that the OPW has been aware of this situation at least since the late 1990s”.