![\"John](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/00238b38-614.jpg\"\/)
\nOPW Chairman John Conlon was speaking to the Public Accounts Committee<\/p>\n
The Office of Public Works (OPW) provided accommodation to the former garda commissioner after around \u20ac400,000 worth of refurbishments were completed on the property, a committee has heard.<\/p>\n
The property in the Phoenix Park was leased to An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na between 2017 to 2025 and the rent stayed the same during these years.<\/p>\n
Drew Harris served as Garda Commissioner during this time.<\/p>\n
OPW Chairman John Conlon confirmed to the Public Accounts Committee that An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na paid the rent for the property on the Spa Road directly to the OPW.<\/p>\n
The rent for the property was around \u20ac21,000 a year, Mr Conlon said.<\/p>\n
Labour TD Eoghan Kenny asked why the rent was not reviewed, saying the “public purse” was affected.<\/p>\n
“It should have been done,” said Mr Conlon, “I’m not clear on why it wasn’t done.”<\/p>\n
Mr Kenny said: “There are people around this country whose rents are increasing on a yearly basis and someone who is on upwards of \u20ac260,000, their rent didn’t increase.”<\/p>\n
\nOPW Chairman John Conlon was speaking to the Public Accounts Committee<\/p>\n
Mr Conlon stressed remedial works, including re-roofing of the property, were carried out before 2017, before the occupant moved in.<\/p>\n
These works were part of upgrades to the OPW’s properties in the Phoenix Park, he said.<\/p>\n
“The works weren’t done in preparation for leasing to An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na,” Mr Conlon said, “I want to emphasise that.”<\/p>\n
He added that the policy is for OPW staff to use these properties.<\/p>\n
However, he said An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na approached them “looking for accommodation that would have a certain amount of security for the occupant”.<\/p>\n
“The occupant was the former commissioner,” he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Kenny labelled this arrangement a “sweetheart deal” and asked for An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na to provide a full account of the financial arrangements for the property.<\/p>\n
“The public deserve transparency and accountability,” he said.<\/p>\n
PAC chairman criticises cost of IPAS site in Co Wicklow<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Chairman of the PAC John Brady said there was a shocking waste of public money on a site for international protection applicants in Co Wicklow.<\/p>\n
In information provided to the committee, he said \u20ac400,000 was wasted on a site at River Lodge in Newtownmountkennedy.<\/p>\n
The development was subject of strong opposition locally.<\/p>\n
He said the department pushed ahead with opening the facility, but it ceased being used as emergency accommodation 12 months ago when the tented structures being used became unviable.<\/p>\n
The department then did “technical and financial assessments, particularly relating to wastewater treatment infrastructure, and found that it was not possible to progress any proposed redevelopment at River Lodge”.<\/p>\n
That work was done with a view to investigating whether it could be used for other types of accommodation.<\/p>\n
Since then, the department has been paying for security on the site.<\/p>\n
“What has happened in Newtown is a sorry saga of mismanagement, and it now needs to be brought to an end.<\/p>\n
“The department continues to maintain security on the site, despite there being no plans to accommodate international protection applicants there.<\/p>\n
“The ongoing cost of providing security for an empty, unused site is yet another unnecessary burden on the taxpayer. This waste has gone on long enough,” Mr Brady said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Office of Public Works (OPW) provided accommodation to the former garda commissioner after around \u20ac400,000 worth of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-163356","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}