The Office of Public Works (OPW) could realise up to €100 million this year from the sale of State lands, the Minister of State for Finance said yesterday.
Mr Tom Parlon said such a sum would be "ambitious", but said that five or six sites of varying sizes had been identified for disposal this year.
He was speaking at the publication of the OPW annual report, which revealed that the expenditure on property rental by Government departments increased to €98.46 million last year from €70.81 million in 2001.
Mr Parlon said: "The transformation of the State projects through site sell-offs, public-private partnerships, joint ventures and land-swap deals will revolutionise the portfolio and will provide the opportunity to unlock value and develop a modern, dynamic infrastructure," he said.
Mr Parlon declined to specify what property would be sold this year.
However, he said the office was preparing a "very substantial" land project in central Dublin for possible development as residential, commercial and social housing use. Speculation that the property was in the Bishop Street area of central Dublin could not be confirmed.
The State's land portfolio has been valued at about €2.5 billion. The OPW chairman, Mr Sean Benton, said: "It's not a question of selling property. It's a question of redirecting some of the value that's there." He said money raised from the sale of land would be used by the OPW for its ongoing projects.
The OPW has initiated the sale of its maintenance headquarters at Lad Lane, off Baggot Street, in a process which is expected to realise some €15 million.
The biggest individual leesors of property last year were the Departments of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and the Revenue Commissioners, both of which paid rents in excess of €17 million. New leases acquired in Dublin last year will cost €5.3 million in a full year. Those outside Dublin will cost €1.82 million.
The report said the OPW spent €6.7 million acquiring sites for 11 new Garda stations in Donegal, Dublin, Galway, Kildare, Limerick, Mayo and Sligo.
The OPW report said about 53,000 members of the public visited Farmleigh House last year. Residential visits were made by the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, the German Minister of Finance, and the Presidents of Latvia, Slovenia and Nigeria.
Mr Parlon said one of the options under consideration in a review of flooding policy was to centralise all activities at the OPW.
None of the bodies that currently have responsibility for this area had objected to such a change, he said.
