State paying €400,000 in rent for vacant agency offices

SOME €400,000 in rent will be paid by the Department of Social and Family Affairs on the vacant offices of the now closed Combat Poverty Agency (CPA), The Irish Times has learned.

The agency shut its doors last July as part of a Government cost-cutting measure to rationalise 40 State agencies in response to the economic downturn.

The independent State agency, which tackled poverty and promoted social inclusion for 23 years, was integrated within the Office for Social Inclusion at the department.

Since the closure of the CPA, €171,000 in rent has been paid by the department on the empty offices at the Bridgewater Centre on Conyngham Road, Islandbridge, Dublin, information released to The Irish Times under a Freedom of Information request has revealed.

However, the department will not be able to break the lease until March 31st, 2011, resulting in a total payment of some €400,000 in rent.

“The end date of the lease on the above offices is 31st March, 2017. There is a break-out clause on 31st March, 2011,” the department stated.

A spokeswoman confirmed that the department would “exercise its right to break out of the lease in March 2011”. There would be “no penalty for exercising this option”, she said.

To date the department has not sublet the premises and is not seeking to sublet the offices in order to recoup the rent.

A department spokeswoman said that until the lease is broken it “will use the space for its own departmental purposes in the meantime”.

However, The Irish Times understands that the office is currently not in use and much of the furniture has been removed.

In light of the continued payment of rent and the redeployment of staff, the department was asked what savings had been made by the closure of the CPA which cost €4.6 million per annum to run.

The spokeswoman said savings included “board members’ fees, accommodation and savings that arise as a result of the integration of support services such as combined personnel, payroll and ancillary services”.

She said the non-renewal of temporary contracts also accounted for savings. The CPA had some 25 staff, most of whom were moved to the Office for Social Inclusion. Four staff were redeployed within the department, while four temporary contracts were not renewed.

The primary reason for the integration of the CPA into the department was “to make sure that the strongest possible mechanisms are in place to tackle poverty and social exclusion as recommended in the review of the Combat Poverty Agency”, the spokeswoman said.

The agency was closed following the conclusions of a Government review group which highlighted what it said were weaknesses in both the agency and the Office for Social Inclusion.

The decision to close the agency was criticised at the time for the loss of an independent voice on poverty and for not making savings. The closure represented the “silencing of criticism of government” and the review offered no figure for overall savings, said Labour spokeswoman for social and family affairs Róisín Shortall in September 2008.

“It started out as a review of the direction of the agency, and then later seemed to be justified on the basis of cost savings, which was never an issue,” former acting director Kevin O’Kelly said in November 2008.

He said there was “political resentment” of the agency’s comments on budgets or Government policies.