Department of Agriculture staff to share with Revenue to save taxpayer money
Voluntary compliance: Department of Agriculture staff set to relocate from South Mall to Revenue's offices in Blackpool Picture: Denis Scannell
UP TO 75 staff of the Department of Agriculture are set to exit their high-profile Cork City centre premises on South Mall for a move to Blackpool where they will share office space with Revenue.
The relocation, due to take place in the first half of the year, will end the department’s presence on South Mall, in the city’s central business district, where it has been for at least 25 years.
The move will be to unoccupied floors of the State-owned Revenue building on Blackpool’s Assumption Rd, where the Irish Examiner occupies an adjoining building.
Staff affected include civil servants working for the North Cork Regional Veterinary Office as well as small teams from other business areas of the department, all of whom are currently based at Hibernian House, 80a South Mall.
The Office of Public Works (OPW) had leased the fourth floor of Hibernian House on behalf of the government tenants.
The department, which also looks after Marine and Food, has additional staff relocation plans in the county. Approximately one dozen staff are set to relocate from the Clonakilty Port Office to OPW-owned premises in Darrara, outside Clonakilty town, “subject to approval”. The move does not affect staff at the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA) head office in Clonakilty.
A department spokesperson said they hoped to progress the Clonakilty move “as soon as possible”...”following a planned refurbishment”.
Both city and county staff relocations are part of a move by the department to produce cost savings as a result of requiring less office space due to the growth in blended working since the pandemic.
The spokesperson said “greater use of blended working has offered an opportunity for the department to consolidate its accommodation requirements into the offices on Assumption Rd”.
The spokesperson added that where such opportunities arise “the OPW will explore the potential to reduce costs to the taxpayer by, for example, exiting leased buildings and relocating either fully or partially to State-owned buildings”.
The OPW has come in for considerable criticism in the past year for spending substantial amounts of taxpayer’s money on items such as the €336,000 Leinster House bike shelter, €1.4m on a security hut at Government Buildings, and €490,000 on what has been dubbed the “posh” wall in Ballsbridge. The OPW manages most of the State’s property portfolio and looks after leases for civil servant accommodation.
As of the end of 2021 (the latest published figures on its website) it was looking after 541 buildings, including 256 owned office buildings and 341 leases in 285 buildings.
The Department of Agriculture spokesperson said the ability to exit “older leased buildings is of particular benefit, where, otherwise, significant investment may be required to meet the public sector climate action roadmap targets”.
“The department recognises the clear value of consolidating its office footprint and is supportive of achieving efficiencies for the taxpayer through use of existing State-owned buildings,” the spokesperson added.
The ending of the government lease at Hibernian House will mean the loss of a blue chip tenant in a building owned by Lanthorn, a real estate investment and management firm spun out of the property investment management arm of Davy, and now a separate entity.
Lanthorn recently invested in a major refurbishment of the first floor of Hibernian House which is currently up for lease via Micheál Walsh of Savills.
“It’s a very nice fit-out and it’s been done to a high-spec,” Mr Walsh said.
He added that natural light levels are excellent throughout the open-plan floorplate of the building.
“It ticks a lot of boxes in terms of what lots of people are looking for in office accommodation,” the agent said.
Rent sought for the 5,500sq ft (511sq m ) first floor of Hibernian House is €20psf. Other clients in the building include smartphone case maker Otter Products (Otterbox and Lifeproof), an American company with its European HQ on South Mall, and Cork-headquartered DP Energy who just this week completed the sale of North America’s largest urban solar project, Saamis Solar Park, to the City of Medicine Hat in Alberta, Canada. Davy and Grafton Recruitment are also at 80a.
Hibernian House is one of South Mall’s many landmark buildings.
The six-storey premises was built in the late 1970s, on the footprint of the Cork and County Club. The building retains the club’s Victorian Italianate facade, which dates from c1825.
of first floor lease: micheal.walsh@savills.ie Tel: 021 4905022
A collection of the latest business articles and business analysis from Cork.
