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Office of Public Works (formally the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland)

Agency overview
Formed	15 October 1831; 193 years ago (1831-10-15)
Preceding agency	Office of the Surveyor General, Barrack Board, Board of Works / Civil Buildings Commissioners, Fisheries Commissioners, Postmaster General (partly), Public Works Loans Commissioners, Directors-General of Inland Navigation
Type	State agency
Jurisdiction	Republic of Ireland
Headquarters	Jonathan Swift Street, Trim, County Meath, C15 NX36
Minister responsible	Patrick O'Donovan, TD, Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform
Agency executive	Maurice Buckley, Chairman
Parent department	Department of Public Expenditure and Reform
Key document	Extension and Promotion of Public Works in Ireland Act 1831
Website	OPW website

The Office of Public Works (OPW) (Template:Lang-ga) (legally the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland, though the full title is rarely used) is a major Irish Government agency which manages most of the Irish State's property portfolio, including owned and rented Government offices and police properties, oversees National Monuments and directly manages some heritage properties, and is the lead State engineering agency, with a special focus on flood risk management. It reports to and advises the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, with some functions delegated to a Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform with special responsibility for the Office. The OPW has a central role in driving the Government's property asset management reform process in respect of its own portfolio and that of the wider public service. The agency was initially known as Board of Works, a title inherited from a preceding body.

The second oldest State agency in Ireland, the OPW subsumed the functions of the Office of the Surveyor General, the Commissioners and Overseers of Barracks (the Barrack Board), the Board of Works / Civil Buildings Commissioners, the Fisheries Commissioners, the Public Works Loans Commissioners, and the Directors-General of Inland Navigation, and some functions of the Postmaster General. It includes the Government Publications Office, and publishes the State gazette. It also for many years oversaw aspects of public procurement, including the first centralised national procurement office. Its inland navigation functions were largely transferred to Waterways Ireland in the 1990s, and many purchasing functions to the Office of Government Procurement in 2014.

Role

The OPW operates as a service provider and facilitator of expertise to government departments, offices and other agencies in the areas of:

• Estate portfolio management (including heritage services) – The OPW provides a shared service in the area of property management and property maintenance incorporating architectural, engineering, valuation, quantity surveying, project management, art and facilities management and the conservation, preservation and presentation of heritage and cultural properties.
• Flood risk management – The OPW is the lead agency for flood risk management in Ireland. It is responsible for developing and implementing comprehensive policies and strategies for flood risk management. It leads and co-ordinates a whole of government approach to flood risk management across three strategic and policy areas of prevention, protection and preparedness.

In addition, the OPW provides other services including a sales facility to the public for government publications (including the production of Iris Oifigiúil, the Irish government's gazette) and a shared service for elections.

History

The office was created on 15 October 1831, and was initially known as the Board of Works. It was formed out of the merger of the Office of the Surveyor-General for Ireland, the Barrack Board, and the Directors-General of Inland Navigation. Up until the early 1920s, The OPW was an All Ireland body, operating as part of the Irish Executive, the branch of the British Government in Ireland. The OPW had responsibility for the majority of heritage sites within the Republic of Ireland prior to 1996. In 1996 the management of most of these sites was transferred to a separate agency, Dúchas, which adopted a stylised version of the traditional OPW logo, with the OPW changing its logo to match its new focus on its buildings and maintenance functions. In 2003 Dúchas was wound up and most of its functions are now operated by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS). Functions not transferred to NPWS reverted to being OPW functions, which mainly relate to built heritage sites; these functions are operated under the title of Heritage Ireland.

Organisation

The Commissioners of Public Works are responsible to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. This has been delegated to the Minister of State at the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform with responsibility for the Office of Public Works. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform remains responsible to Dáil Éireann for the exercise and performance of any powers and duties delegated to the Minister of State. The Commissioners comprise a Chairman (Maurice Buckley) and two other Commissioners. The staff of the organisation comprise part of the Civil Service of the State.

The Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland (the Board of Commissioners) and their powers, duties and functions, as conferred on them by the Public Works (Ireland) Act 1831 and subsequent leglisation, are assigned to, and administered by, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform as the responsible head of the Board of Commissioners to Dáil Éireann. In that regard, the Office of Public Works, while a central Government Office, is a sub-office of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform Office. The legal powers conferred on the Commissioners are exercisable only with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.

The OPW is a scheduled Office under the Public Service Management Act 1997, which sets out arrangements for the management of Departments and Offices and the specification of individual responsibilities and accountability at a senior level. The Chairman of the Board of Commissioners is the administrative Head of the OPW and is also the Accounting Officer for the OPW. The OPW's Management Board, which includes the Chairman, Commissioners and senior Heads of Divisions, is the top-level management group which advises the Minister and Minister of State on policy and directs the activities and functions of the Office.

The Commissioners of Public Works published an annual report from 1832 and 1939, halting during The Emergency, as World War II was known in Ireland. The report was resumed by the OPW in 1990, and continues to issue annually, with an electronic archive online holding reports since 2000.

See also

• Department for Communities (DfC)
• Heritage sites (Republic of Ireland)
• Ministry of Finance (Northern Ireland)
• Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA)

References

1. "About the Office of Public Works". Government of Ireland. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
2. "Guide to the Archives of the Office of Public Works". Nationalarchives.ie. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
3. "Dúchas to be closed down". The Digger. August 2003. Archived from the original on 4 May 2005.
4. "Commissioners of Public Works (Functions and Powers) Act 1996, S. 2: Functions of Commissioners". Irish Statute Book. 6 March 1996. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
5. "Finance (Transfer of Departmental Administration and Ministerial Functions) Order 2011". Irish Statute Book. 28 July 2011. Retrieved 27 December 2020.
6. "The Office of Public Works - Welcome". Opw.ie. Office of Public Works. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
7. "Press Release - Minister appoints new Chairman of the OPW". Opw.ie. Office of Public Works. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
8. "The Office of Public Works Governance Framework" (PDF). Opw.ie. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 December 2016.

External links

• Official website
• Heritage Ireland website
• Iris Oifigiúil website

• Government agencies of the Republic of Ireland
• Cultural heritage of Ireland
• Public finance of Ireland
• Department of Public Expenditure and Reform