Preceding bodies Until the late 17th century, public buildings in Ireland were financed, constructed and maintained by royal officials, most notably the
Surveyor General of Ireland, without any involvement of parliamentary authorities, but in 1700, the
Irish Parliament created two bodies, a set of land trustees (the
Trustees of Barracks), and the
Commissioners and Overseers of Barracks (informally known as the
Barrack Board) to handle military accommodation, using funds allocated by parliamentary vote. In 1759, the role of the Barrack Board was extended to include fortresses and other public buildings, and its name became
the Barrack Board and Board of Works. The body of seven salaried commissioners were made responsible for forts, palaces and other public buildings, including
Dublin Castle, specifically covering their furnishing and maintenance. The Surveyor General of the time, who was also, as had been the convention for at least decades, the
Engineer General of the
Board of Ordnance, raised some concerns about the potential interference of the new commissioners with his role, and in 1761, responsibility for fortifications was moved from the Barrack Board and Board of Works to the
Board of Ordnance. However, in 1762, it was decided to abolish the office of Surveyor General, and this was completed by 1763, with most of its work transferred to the Barrack Board and Board of Works, and the remainder was continued by the staff of the Board of Ordnance, within which a reduced version of the role was created.
Establishment The office was created on 15 October 1831 by the '''''' (
1 & 2 Will. 4. c. 33), which provided for a body of three commissioners, with powers to employ staff, pay for works, and make loans to other bodies, accountable quarterly to the Treasury in London. The Westminster Parliament took this step partly to better manage a sum of £500,000 which had been made available to deal with poverty caused by the 1831 famine in Ireland, and partly to reduce the cost and complexity arising from the proliferation of public bodies in the area of public works in Ireland. It was formed to assume the functions of the Commissioners for Public Buildings / Board of Works, the Commissioners and Overseers of Barracks (commonly known as the Barrack(s) Board), and the Directors-General of Inland Navigation (which had taken on the work of the former Fisheries Commissioners). The office also took on functions from other bodies, most specifically concerned with Ireland, including the
Postmaster General and the Public Works Loan Commissioners, which continued to operate for several decades alongside the OPW, but also including the
Commissioners of Woods and Forests (a United Kingdom-wide authority). The commissioners were given the power to pay salaries but not to promise or pay pensions.
The Famine years The commissioners were asked to provide work to help mitigate the effects of the
Great Famine, with four acts passed at Westminster in 1846 for what were called "relief works", respectively for general public works, county works, building of piers, harbours and fisheries facilities, and drainage projects. These were followed by additional acts to support the issuing of loans to finance further employment, but there were issues with quality control, coordination across districts, and management of the large workforces involved. In 1892 the OPW was given general powers concerning any "ancient or medieval structure of historic or architectural interest", with further powers granted in 1903 and 1923. Some powers required the consent of land owners, and this was sometimes refused, as by the
Lord Dunsany in 1893, concerning
Trim Castle.
The 20th century Up until the early 1920s, the OPW was, as all parts of the Irish Executive, the branch of the
British Government in Ireland, an all-Ireland body. After the independence of most of
Ireland in December 1922, the OPW ceased to be an all Ireland body and its reporting line moved from the Treasury to the
Department of Finance in the new
Irish Free State, where it remained for decades (before moving to the
Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in 2011). From the 1980s, the OPW led work on Dublin Castle, the former Royal College of Science on
Merrion Street turned Government Buildings, and the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham. The original
Ballinamore and Ballyconnell Canal having failed, and been transferred to the relevant local authorities, the canal and associated waters were transferred back to the modern OPW and reworked as the
Shannon–Erne Waterway between 1990 and 1994, when it reopened on time and within budget. Between 1998 and 2000, the OPW managed the development of a new office complex for
Leinster House, with offices for more than 100 members and staff of the
Oireachtas and new committee and party leader rooms. 2000 also saw the delivery of a new visitor and educational building for the
National Botanic Gardens, the completion of work on
Rathfarnham Castle, two projects at the
Irish Museum of Modern Art, and the beginning of work to make
Farmleigh usable as the State's premium accommodation for visiting dignitaries. The OPW also delivered projects outside Ireland, at the
United Nations Plaza in New York, and for
Expo 2000. From 2000, the OPW assumed responsibility for acquisition of sites for both primary and post-primary schools.
Heritage sites The OPW had general 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 new agency,
Dúchas, branded as
Dúchas: The Heritage Service, within another department of government. Dúchas, which also included the
National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), 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 some of its functions are now operated by a standalone
National Parks and Wildlife Service, and some by the
National Monuments Service (NMS) at the
Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, while functions not transferred to the NPWS or the NMS reverted to being OPW responsibilities, which mainly relate to built heritage sites; these functions are operated under the brand
Heritage Ireland.
The 21st century The OPW continued an annual programme of property acquisition by purchase and lease, and disposal, including civil service, police, prison and educational facilities, as well as managing a range of strategic projects. In 2001, the Office funded a major study of the
River Tolka for three local authorities, and managed projects on the
Irish Colleges in Paris and
Rome, and the
Island of Ireland Peace Park in
Mesen, Belgium, In 2003, the OPW was assigned the task of locating and contracting, fitting-out or adapting offices for 10,000 civil servants scheduled to move out from Dublin to various other urban areas in a mass decentralisation programme, in addition to which it completed a new
Garda Siochana command centre at Harcourt Square, and a passport production facility in
Balbriggan. In 2004–2005, projects included the construction of new staff offices, a restaurant and entrance facilities at
Dublin Zoo, and the completion of a multi-year restoration of the Victorian
Palm House at the Botanic Gardens and of the glass houses on Garinish Island, as well as supporting both the development of the
Aviva Stadium and of the new
National Sports Campus at Abbotstown, County Dublin. In 2006, it was announced that the OPW's own headquarters would be decentralised to Trim, County Meath, and an internal competition was held for the design of a new headquarters building. The Trim Headquarters officially opened in late 2008 with staff moving in in the following months. A small number of staff remained in 52 St Stephen's Green which was part of the former Dublin Headquarters (51 St Stephen's Green). The Backwestern Laboratory project, which cost over 200 million euro was completed, and the sale by the OPW of state property in Ballsbridge yielded over 170 million euro. In 2010, the head office of the OPW move to Trim, while the National Convention Centre in Dublin opened, under a public-private partnership, and a major wave of flood risk management studies got underway, including reviews of Cork's River Lee, and Dublin's River Dodder. In 2011, the OPW noted that visitor numbers to its managed properties exceeded 3.5 million, and it managed aspects of the State visits of both
Queen Elizabeth II and President
Barack Obama. In 2012, the Office set up a central IT system for its libraries, and a construction management system for National Monuments sites. Major works were also completed at Clonmacnoise and the Hill of Tara, and 230 bridges were repaired or replaced. The National Procurement Service continued to operate within the OPW, and the Government appointed its first Chief Procurement Officer. In 2014, visitor numbers to major OPW-managed heritage sites passed 4 million, while the Irish presidency of the EU was hosted at a much lower cost than a decade earlier due to use of OPW-managed office premises and Dublin Castle. The National Procurement Service was moved from the OPW to an independent establishment under the same government department. In 2021, the 300 remaining Dublin staff vacated 52 St Stephen's Green and moved to 1GQ on George's Quay, Dublin 2, bringing to an end to their decades long presence on the iconic Dublin Georgian square. In September 2024, the agency was involved in a "huge political controversy" Speaking in September 2024, John Conlon, chairman of the OPW, noted that the bike shed project had been outsourced to south Dublin contractor Sensori Facilities Management, who had in turn outsourced it themselves.
The Irish Examiner noted that Conlon "took responsibility for the controversial spend" ahead of a meeting before the Oireachtas Finance Committee, and acknowledged that the OPW "could have done better." == Functions ==