State agency has no plan for Laois site that cost taxpayers €1 million for 999 years

A Laois site earmarked for civil service offices in Portlaoise is in limbo with no apparent plan in place to do anything with the land which cost taxpayers over €1 million.

That's what has emerged when Laois Offaly TD Brian Stanley asked the Office of Public Works about land bought to build a central offices in Portlaoise for the hundreds of Department of Agriculture staff who work in the town.

Many of the staff were assigned to Portlaoise under the Fianna Fáil PD decentralisation plan in 2003. However, most of them work in offices rented privately in the town costing taxpayers many millions over the past 20 years.

In 2005, it was decided to build a Portlaoise HQ to centralise operations. A site was procured in 2007 from the IDA on the Mountrath Road and planning permission was secured but nothing materialised. 

The issue was raised by Dep Stanley with the OPW on June 13 at the Dáil Public Accounts Committee which he chairs. he asked about the the number of premises rented and the cost involved per annum. He said the site earmarked to replace rental properties is lying idle.

"There is a cost per year for renting premises, so it has been costing a fortune. All sorts of unusual premises were used, including one and two-bedroom apartments in a housing development to house the Department, with inadequate Internet connections," he said..

He said Portlaoise Garda station was going to be relocated there temporarily to the vacant site while works were carried out on the main Garda station.

"The bushes are growing pretty high on the site at the moment. It is a good, natural, wild area and given we are trying to rewild areas, the only function that I can see it providing at the moment is carbon sequestration. It is sitting there. We cannot afford to have sites like this sitting there in a town the size of Portlaoise. It has to be put to use. If the OPW is not going to use it, we need to decide what it is going to be used for. Does the OPW have any information on this matter?

Cathleen Morrison, head of estate management, replied that the site was purchased in €1.03 million.

"Our interest in it is by way of a long-term lease from IDA Ireland, so the uses we can put it to are restricted and it was specifically for Government offices. We were in discussions with IDA Ireland this time last year in regard to temporary use for the Garda Síochána but that did not work out and we met that requirement separately. I have initiated discussions with IDA Ireland to discuss what possible future uses," she said.

Queried on the long-term lease, Ms Morrison said the IDA Ireland owns the site but the IDA bought out that lease but it is not completely free title.

"We have to get permission to use it for anything other than Government offices, which is what is specified in the lease. We will have to discuss that with the IDA," said the official.

While the site lies idle, the IDA bought land in October 2022 beside its technology park to 'future-proof' the property offering in attracting Foreign Direct Investment to Laois in particular.