Louth TD calls for end to rent arrangements for senior public servants

Louth TD and member of the Public Accounts Committee, Deputy Joanna Byrne, has called on the Office of Public Works (OPW) to end their "nod-and-a-wink practice of allowing the retired and current public servants to pay minimal rents on houses in the Phoenix Park".

The local TD made her remarks following today’s meeting of the PAC where the OPW’s admission that its properties in the Phoenix Park were being rented out at "inexplicably" low rates of between €670 and €4,160 per annum.

Deputy Byrne said: “The lack of oversight and mismanagement by the OPW of their properties in the Phoenix Park must come to an end.  

“For years, the OPW, and indeed the Minister with responsibility for the OPW, have refused to answer questions on those properties. But now we know that the nod-and-a-wink rents paid on the properties range from €670 per annum to €4,160 per annum - tiny, tiny sums.  

“Who decided these paltry amounts? What processes and procedures, if any, were followed to determine that these figures were appropriate? Or were they decided on a whim - a nod and a wink?"

Read also: A disqualified driver drove past gardaí wearing sunglasses at night

The Louth TD continued: “The entire state is in a housing crisis and the fact that senior public servants can get homes, even after retirement, in the picturesque Phoenix Park, in the heart of Dublin, at such inexplicably low rates simply beggars belief.

“The preferential rent arrangements for senior public servants will not be lost on those working on the very frontline of our emergency services struggling to keep a roof over their heads. It is yet another slap in the face.

“Those who have benefited from this practice are and were senior well-paid senior public servants - not emergency services crews that need to roll out at a moment's notice.

“If they are contractually obliged to be there, then more suitable rents should be charged, and the fact that they are being housed in such a prime location should also be examined thoroughly.

“The veil has finally been drawn back, and what we see from the OPW in terms of their management of the state's assets simply is not good enough.

“At today's meeting, I asked that the OPW be written to and requested that they review this matter urgently. It must be put to them in the strongest terms that this practice must end.”