STATE SALARIES of about €9 million a year are expected to boost the local economy, following the opening of the new Department of the Environment offices in Wexford yesterday.
Part of the Government’s decentralisation programme, the new offices will ultimately house about 270 staff with more than 180 already working on the new campus. Forty additional workers are due to transfer over the next three months.
A spokesman said the decentralisation scheme had not suffered from a lack of interest among departmental staff, a factor he ascribed to Wexford being one of the more desirable places to live.
The building, developed by the Office of Public Works, is on a wedge-shaped site sloping towards the Slaney estuary. Curved to symbolise “an embracing department open to and welcoming the public”, the 6,500sq m space was designed to be eco-friendly.
Opening the building yesterday, Minister for the Environment John Gormley congratulated architects Scott Tallon Walker and Peter Dudley, the lead architect.
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