€1m Leinster House tunnel gets go-ahead
Wednesday August 18 2010
PLANS for a €1m underground link at Leinster House are to proceed after no one objected to the project.
The Office of Public Works (OPW) has now told Dublin City Council and the Department of the Environment it will be going ahead with the works.
Members of the public had six weeks from July 1 to make their objections known to the OPW but none materialised.
Under the plans, the Leinster House campus will be connected via an underground corridor to the Department of Agriculture headquarters down the street.
A spokesman for the OPW confirmed the plans, which had been on display in the organisation's Dublin city centre offices, prompted no opposition.
"As a result of that, we wrote to the Department of the Environment and Dublin City Council on August 12 advising them of the decision to proceed with the project," he added.
While the work will cost €1m, a save of €700,000 a year in rent of facilities is expected.
The building will also have €1.4m spent on conservation of the stonework and roof, which is currently in danger of collapsing.
Covered
Agriculture House is being largely vacated by the department as the bulk of its staff are being decentralised to Portlaoise.
The Houses of the Oireachtas will take over this building on Kildare Street by building the tunnel.
The tunnel will cost €1m over two years, but the cost will be covered within less than a year and a half.
The development will allow the Oireachtas to save €700,000 a year by giving up the leases on office space currently being rented in the area.
The work around the building will also make Leinster House disability-compliant by the end of 2011.
In addition, the conservation work on the building will be conducted over two years.
The plan was originally contained in a report put together by the in-house accommodation committee, chaired by Fianna Fail TD Michael Mulcahy.
The body in charge of running Leinster House, the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission, approved the works previously.
comurphy@herald.ie
- Cormac Murphy
