Some retired public service staff are living in State-owned accommodation in Dublin at rents as low as \u20ac12 per week, the D\u00e1il Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has been told. <\/p>\n
The Office of Public Works <\/a>(OPW) told the committee in correspondence that there were \u201coccasions where the properties remain occupied by retired staff and widowed spouses under caretaking arrangements or on compassionate grounds\u201d. <\/p>\n \u201cDecisions in relation to extended occupancy are made on a case-by-case basis with some occupants continuing to pay rental income under agreements in place,\u201d the OPW said in its letter<\/a>. Rental levels for these properties range from \u20ac670 per year to \u20ac4,160 per year, it told the committee. <\/p>\n The OPW said it owns 55 properties in the Phoenix Park<\/a>, of which 36 were occupied by serving or retired civil servants.<\/p>\n The organisation said that, within its overall estate of properties, \u201cthere are a number of sundry residential dwellings that are intrinsic to historic estates, gardens and parks, including the Phoenix Park, and are an important part of the built heritage under the OPW\u2019s remit\u201d. <\/p>\n Due to their historic nature or location and their protected status, they are not stand-alone properties that can be \u201cdealt with independently of the estate\/park in which they are located\u201d, it said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has always been the practice that these residences were occupied by essential OPW workers <\/a>who supported such estates, gardens and parks in terms of maintaining the associated OPW properties <\/a>and grounds by providing essential services and an on-site security presence for the estate.\u201d<\/p>\n Employees required to reside on site get work-related accommodation, while other employees on site can be provided with accommodation to facilitate the performance of their duties, it said. This is reflected in the level of rent charged for existing employees.<\/p>\n There are occasions where the properties remain occupied by retired staff and widowed spouses under \u201ccaretaking arrangements or on compassionate grounds\u201d, the OPW added.<\/p>\n Opposition deputies called on the OPW to provide more details about the properties rented out at rates below the market. <\/p>\n Sinn F\u00e9in TD Joanna Byrne urged it \u201cto 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 lack of oversight and mismanagement by the OPW of their properties in the Phoenix Park must come to an end. <\/p>\n \u201cFor years, the OPW, and indeed the minister with responsibility for the OPW, have refused to answer questions on those properties.\u201d <\/p>\n She added: \u201cThe 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.\u201d <\/p>\n It emerged in November that the OPW had provided accommodation in the Phoenix Park to former Garda commissioner Drew Harris, who was charged about \u20ac21,000 a year in rent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some retired public service staff are living in State-owned accommodation in Dublin at rents as low as \u20ac12…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[83118,61,60,43,29684,12467,3415],"class_list":{"0":"post-246894","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-drew-harris","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-opw","13":"tag-public-accounts-committee","14":"tag-sinn-fein"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246894","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=246894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}