Aontú Leader Peadar Tóibín has slammed the continuing ‘omnishambles’ within the Office of Public Works, as the Comptroller and Auditor General revealed a tangled web of errors and costs to the public purse by the agency, confirming its status as the poster child of government waste.
Speaking today, the Meath West TD said:
“The 2024 Annual Report from the Comptroller and Auditor General is packed full of mismanagement and waste, and the Office of Public Works has reared its head again as a serial waster of public money on behalf of this government.
Details of office accommodation are a feature of the audit, which reveals millions of euros being paid for empty buildings and buildings being recorded as having 0-1 m² of floorspace. The purchase of buildings whose primary floors lay empty for years and not even holding proper records of which buildings it owned is also included.
The report cited 59 buildings owned or leased by the OPW recorded as covering 0-1 m2 of floorspace, despite many of the properties hosting hundreds of civil servants. How could this even be possible?
The database kept by OPW noted several separate buildings at Garda headquarters, which the State owns, showing that two of the buildings listed on the database — the ‘clock building’ and ‘finance building’ — were in fact one building.
Separately, several buildings present on the site (e.g. the International Building and Dooley’s building) were not included in the listing of owned buildings provided to the examination team by the OPW.
In terms of office accommodation, a property at Bishops Gate, Dublin 2, cost taxpayers almost €7.9 million (excluding VAT) in rent from May 2019 to March 2024, whilst the property was not occupied. The OPW also contributed to the fit-out of the building, costing €10.45 million (excluding VAT and fees), which exceeds the amount originally agreed by over 45%. The building was not occupied until May 2024.
The property with the second-highest rent expenditure in 2024 (€10 million) — the Distillers Building in Dublin 7 — remains empty. The lease term commenced in July 2022, and since the expiry of a rent-free period in March 2024, the OPW has paid rent totalling €12 million (excluding VAT) up to the end of September 2025. The OPW has stated that it expects the building to be ready for occupation by September 2025.
In a further demonstration of ineptitude, the OPW agreed a 20-year lease for Bloom House, Dublin 1, in November 2015. The agreement gave the OPW the option to terminate the lease after ten years, or after 15 years, subject to serving 12-months’ notice in writing to the landlord and vacating the property before the option date. In June 2024, the tenant told the OPW it needed larger accommodation, and so logic would dictate the lease would end. Not so.
Despite having received the correspondence almost 18 months in advance of the option date, the OPW could not provide the audit team with any evidence that activating the break clause in November 2025 had been considered. They were asleep at the wheel.
Finally, the OPW purchased Trinity Point for €39.85 million (excluding VAT) in December 2023. As of the end of May 2025, the first floor of the building remained vacant. Only recently has a client been found to occupy the space.
This government is continuing to incinerate taxpayers’ money at an astonishing rate. If there is no accountability, there will be no change, and despite revelations around bike sheds and the debacle of the National Children’s Hospital, this government seemed determined to escalate its own embarrassment.
We will be demanding answers, and Ministers should have a better answer than the stock reply of ‘lessons having been learnt’.”
