These numbers are staggering… it would be interesting to know in these cases…
1 Who owned the purchased sites at the time…
2 Who are the current owners of the rented buildings…
IN 2007, the Office of Public Works (OPW) spent just over €10 million buying a site of less than two acres in Drogheda, to provide a new headquarters for the Department of Social Protection.
At €5,724,432 per acre, it was by far the most expensive acquisition by the government for its “decentralisation” programme.
If it bothers you then just mail the OPW and ask them for the tender scoring matrix . If you don’t get an answer then FOI them, AFAIR they are subject to foi
If you think thats bad, then look at the Carlow experience.
The Gov bought a 1 acre site in the town centre, which they intended to apply for PP on and build and office block for the CRO and Dept of Enterprise to relocate to.
In their wisdom, the schedule meant they had to move to Carlow sooner than they expected, so they decided to look at renting a suitable unit in the town in the interim. As there was no suitable building, they contracted a developer to build a suitable office block for them elsewhere in Carlow, while they waited on their permanent site to be built on.
So, to recap, their thoughts were: “lets build a building to use as offices, while we’re waiting on our building to be built” - why they just couldn’t go ahead with the original site immediately is beyond me.
Now the original site is on hold, and they remain in the temporary (but purpose built to their spec.) building.