Dublin City Council’s half-billion-euro Wood Quay retrofit bill 137 times higher than those of other councils
The €504m bill that Dublin City Council (DCC) cites to retrofit its Wood Quay headquarters is 137 times the average cost for the same works in other local authorities.
The Irish Independent asked 30 of Ireland’s 31 local authorities (excluding DCC) about how they plan to bring their headquarters up to standard with looming energy-efficiency targets.
These mandate that all public sector buildings be raised to at least a B BER standard by 2030.
Of the 28 councils that responded, 23 said they were planning to retrofit their existing offices with improvements like better insulation, solar panels and replacing gas boilers with heat pumps.
Eight councils provided total estimates for how much they expect to spend on such works, with figures ranging from €1.2m (Carlow County Council) to €9.7m (Kerry County Council).
These eight councils predict an average spend of €3.67m each over the next four years to address their headquarters’ energy inefficiency. DCC quoted between €487m and €504m for the same works, up to 137 times more.
Retrofit works for the main offices of DCC’s neighbour – Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown (DLR) – have been allocated €4.79m, while Leitrim County Council and Waterford City and County Council forecast a spend of €5.4m and €2.2m, respectively, on their HQs.
Councils in Longford, Sligo and Kilkenny are predicting an outlay of €2.4m, €1.8m and €1.9m respectively on works for their offices.
Tipperary County Council said it would be spending about €2.45m on two of its main offices – in Clonmel and Nenagh – with costs for another three locations undetermined at this stage.
The Camden Yard project represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to deliver significant and lasting public value
The figures from around the country stand in stark contrast to DCC’s half-billion euro estimates to retrofit Wood Quay, which are rooted in an ARUP report the council refuses to release.
When asked for the document, a spokesperson said it “remains subject to ongoing review and internal governance processes and is not yet in a finalised form for release”.
“Relevant documentation will be made available once the work is complete and has progressed through the appropriate statutory and governance steps,” the spokesperson said.
As the largest council headquarters in the country, DCC’s would be expected to have a bigger retrofit bill than other councils, which have fewer staff and serve smaller populations.
But on a per-square-metre basis, too, the gulf between the figures is striking.
DLR’s offices take up 15,760 sq m in Dún Laoghaire town, meaning that on a per-square-metre basis, retrofitting would cost €304.
On average, the nine councils that gave retrofit costings and the size of their offices will spend €732 per square metre to improve their efficiency.
The Wood Quay complex has a gross floor area of 26,294 sq m.
Therefore, a retrofitted square metre of Wood Quay would cost the taxpayer between €18,521 and €19,168, depending on whether the works take place in phases or in one fell swoop.
That estimate makes the capital’s civic offices between 61 and 63 times more expensive to renovate on a per-metre-spare basis than County Hall in Dún Laoghaire.
The disparity has not been explained or justified by DCC, yet it provides the core of its rationale to move to a new office instead of renovating Wood Quay.
The authority purchased the Camden Yard site on Kevin Street, previously owned by Technological University Dublin, in March for €90m.
Subject to government approval, almost €500m of public money is now expected to be ploughed into the development to finish the office and residential components of the part-built site.
The council is aiming to have it finished and fitted in time for relocation in 2030.
In a further response sent following the publication of this article, the council said: “The figures referenced [to retrofit Wood Quay] arise from technical assessments carried out as part of the Council’s broader evaluation of its future office accommodation needs, including the Civic Offices at Wood Quay and the acquisition of Camden Yard.
“They do not represent a finalised project scope or cost.
“It is not appropriate to directly compare these assessments with individual retrofit projects elsewhere, given significant differences in scale, condition and scope of works.”
Richard Shakespeare, the council’s chief executive, said the move to Camden Yard makes sense, because retrofitting the E1-rated Wood Quay would be too costly, and transferring staff elsewhere presents a housing opportunity on that site.
A council massing study found that Wood Quay, if redeveloped, has the potential to accommodate more than 500 apartments, at a further cost of €282m.
“The Camden Yard project represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Dublin City Council to deliver significant and lasting public value,” a recent DCC presentation to councillors read.
It said the authority had an opportunity to acquire a “strategically located, fully consented, and partially constructed site at exceptional value”.
The council also points to the potential to sublet the extra office space to another tenant, providing much-needed rental income, and an additional 299 homes on site.
I am very nervous that we’re about to watch the start of some very bad decisions being made
Councillors, however, are growing increasingly sceptical of the case council staff are presenting.
Elected members of all political stripes are airing grievances about the secretive nature of the project, the lack of clarity regarding figures and the undemocratic nature of the decision, which is being driven by Mr Shakespeare.
During the last monthly meeting, Social Democrats councillor Karl Stanley said elected members would not be “led around by the nose” by council officials.
“As a Dub and somebody who grew up here, I am very nervous that we’re about to watch the start of some very bad decisions being made,” he said.
Speaking to the Irish Independent, he said he does not accept the calculations presented by council management at face value, calling them “ridiculous”.
He feels the case for retrofitting was set up by DCC to appear deliberately unappealing, with the Camden Yard proposal painted in a deceptively rosy light.
“There’s a conclusion they want, which is obviously, [Richard] Shakespeare wants to move, he wants to get his legacy project, and he’s trying to push for that solution,” he said.
“What I’m trying to push for is one, a bit of transparency to know what’s going on, and two, what is the actual best solution for Dublin, not just for Richard Shakespeare.”
Councillors have had a few meetings with DCC’s head of finance, Rory Flannery, to discuss the project, but they are not allowed to take any documents away with them and in Mr Stanley’s case, there was a 90-minute time limit on the session.
“There’s about 3,000 pages. There’s these big, giant binders they dump in front of you. You’re not allowed take any photographs, you’re not allowed take anything out of the room. You know, that’s a clear tactic to avoid oversight,” he said of the proceedings.
“There wasn’t even an executive summary. You’d expect them to give you a three-pager at the start, but they didn’t even do that.”
Mr Flannery has now offered to take councillors through the documents for as long as they need in one-to-one sessions, but has evaded questions on whether they can bring an expert along with them.
Mr Stanley said this was a vital element of the process. “We’re councillors, you know. I’m not a lawyer, I’m not an engineer … so it would be useful to bring somebody who has planning or architecture experience with us,” he added.
However, the largest council in the country is not the only one preparing to up sticks in the name of energy efficiency.
Galway City Council and Monaghan County Council are in the same boat, although at different stages of the process and at a much smaller scale.
The former has purchased a new A2-rated office in Crown Square on the outskirts of the city, which it aims to move into by the final quarter of the year. A spokesperson said acquisition and fit-out costs will come to around €56.6m.
And Monaghan council has budgeted €42.2m to build new offices on the Roosky Lands site in Monaghan town. The project has received planning approval and will come before councillors later this summer.
Three other local authorities – Roscommon, Mayo and Louth – are already situated in A- or B-rated offices, therefore retrofit works are not required.
Donegal County Council and Galway County Council did not provide responses to the Irish Independent’s queries.