Committee Reports > List of Committees > Dáil > 1986 > Committee on Public Expenditure > Report No. 17 - Proposed Department of Defence/Army Headquarters

O.P.W. RESPONSE

Department of Defence

Proposed New Headquarters Building

The information originally sought is as follows:-

A.Space allocations by grade of staff and number and size of individual offices.

Individual office accommodation is being allocated to grades from Ministerial to Assistant Principal Officer level and army staff equivalents. The remaining office space will in general include shared offices and some open plan where considered suitable. The building will be occupied on a 24 hour basis. Appendix A gives full details of the space involved. The allocations are within usual O.P.W. space allowances.

The present main buildings and outhouses occupied by the Department of Defence house 750 heads of staff while the brief for the new building is for 900 (to include Military Headquarters staff now housed in other buildings around the city). The space occupied at present and which involves overcrowding in many areas comprises some 110,000 sq. ft. which compares with about 140,000 sq. ft out of a total 210,000 sq. feet in the proposed building.

B.What management study was undertaken to determine internal logistics of the office accommodation and relative location?

The Department of Defence furnished a brief in respect of the proposed new building and in preparing it took the Department’s operational and organisational needs into account. The Design Team then designed a scheme to cater for these requirements in the most efficient and effective manner having regard to such aspects as Fire and Security regulations, building bye-laws etc.

In preparing the design and layout the Department was consulted to ensure that the end design met the needs of the Department and the final plan is the one that evolved from the original brief and consultations with the Department during the planning process.

The various stages in the planning procedure ensure that the design meets The optimum requirements of the Department in management terms.

C.What study was done on the economics of bringing all locations of the Department under one roof?

An Economic Evaluation of the project was undertaken by the Department of Finance in 1978 which included inter alia consideration of time and staff savings through centralisation. It was concluded that centralisation and the greater ease of communication it would imply would result in avoidance of duplication and staff savings. An approximate figure of £69,000 per annum (at 1978 prices) was put on these elements.

O.P.W. and Departments generally agree that it is more efficient to house staff under the one roof and this would be the preferred option. Moreover as indicated to the Committee at the meeting there are security considerations for bringing the entire staff (civilian and military) under one roof. The leasing or purchase of an existing office complex to house the Department of Defence and Defence Forces Headquarters personnel even if such were available (which it is not) would pose major problems of a security nature in relation to location, access, parking, provision of guardroom for weapons and ammunition, secure communications centre including antennae, relays and power units.

D.In the figure of £20m quoted what is included by way of fitting out?

The amount included for fitting-out in the figure of £20m is £2.5m approximately.

The following are the Commissioners’ views on the separate statements/ queries in the enclosure with minute under reference:

1.State premises in the care of the Office of Public Works are maintained to the highest standard possible with the funds available. The levels of such funding is reflected in the maintained condition of buildings. Account must, however, be taken of their age and whether or not they are now being used for the purpose for which they were built which is not the case with any of the Defence buildings. A statement giving the maintenance etc. costs in 1985 of the buildings involved is attached at Appendix B.

The main building at Parkgate is a building which must be preserved. What the cost of doing this will be, initially at least, will be determined by the use to which it is put. While it is extremely difficult to give an order of cost we estimate that a realistic figure for work needed is £1.25m to which a further £.56 would need to be added if the building were to be re-used as offices. As of now it is not clear that it would be better utilized after restoration in serving a different function than its present one of office accommodation. The premises might be suitable for use as a military museum, for archives, or to provide storage space for another Government Department. In any event the building is too small even for the present staff of almost 200 and on re-construction as offices it could not house more than 150 of the Department’s staff in reasonable standards.

2.See paragraph C.

3 & 4Items 3 and 4 are for the Department of Finance rather than the O.P.W. to comment upon.

5.Insofar as the Office of Public Works is aware there is no single premises available for lease or sale in the Dublin area which would meet the Department’s entire accommodation needs. As part of the brief of the Department there are specialist and security needs which must be met in addition to the office space required and it could prove extremely difficult and costly to provide these in leased premises or to adapt existing State owned premises to cater for these requirements. See reply at paragraph C.

6.On receipt of tenders the Commissioners will in the normal way before proceeding with acceptance of a bid be making a report to the Department of Finance. It will be a matter for that Department to consider any further submission to Government.

The Commissioners would point out that there could be criticism from the Construction Industry if there were radical reductions in the scheme subsequent to invitation of tenders as contractors would have incurred expense in pricing tenders.

7.The likely options were considered in the Evaluation referred to in paragraph C. This showed building as the preferred option for a 37 year period. The only new factor is that purchasing might be cheaper if a large enough building were available on the market. If this were so the question of costly renovations for such a building would arise.

8.It has been ascertained that the construction cost of a commercial undertaking involving a multi-storey office building with basement car park at present under way in the city is £614 per square metre for a shell building. If to this is added a notional (conservative) estimate of £270 per square metre for certain finishes and fitting-out (excluding furniture) we have a figure of £884 per square metre. A comparable figure for the Department of Defence building is £868 per square metre (about £81 a square foot). The approximate figure of £100 per square foot mentioned at the meeting of the Committee includes in addition provision for fees, furniture and inflation. It can be seen therefore that the estimates are by no means too high particularly when account is taken of the special security and other facilities which have been included in the design of the new headquarters building.

9.It is the O.P.W. view that all the Department of Defence staff at present are in sub-standard accommodation, although this may be less so in the case of staff located in Park House. Nevertheless even in that case there are numerous staff complaints about heating and air-conditioning arising because the building was planned and constructed for low density accommodation (as a hotel) not as high density offices.

I trust that the above information answers satisfactorily the queries raised.

Appendix A.