THE UNFINISHED ANGLO Irish Bank building on Dublin’s quays is being sold to the Central Bank for €7 million.

NAMA CEO Brendan McDonagh said today that a formal agreement had been reached for the sale of the property on North Wall Quay.

The Central Bank is now expected to finish construction on the structure and use it as its new headquarters.

The bank currently employs around 1,400 staff, many of whom are based in the bank’s Dame Street offices. The remaining staff are spread across six other premises used by the bank.

Earlier this year, the bank’s governor Patrick Honohan said that its Dame Street base was “suitably large enough to accommodate all its staff until membership of the euro and the concentration of financial regulation (beyond banking) under the Central Bank umbrella in the early 2000s”. He added that the bank had further increased its regulatory staff since the emergence of the financial crisis.

The governor also said that he didn’t envisage the Central Bank ‘boarding up’ the Dame Street building and that central banking activities could continue there for years, depending on how quickly a suitable buyer could be found.

In a statement this afternoon, NAMA CEO Brendan McDonagh welcomed the sale of the North Wall Quay structure, saying that NAMA is “very happy with the price secured”.

” NAMA working with the Receivers had prioritised the sale of this asset for the past 18 months and had engaged with a number of interested parties,” McDonagh said. “We are very happy now to have concluded the process and look forward to the Central Bank completing  the building which will greatly enhance the whole landscape of the Dublin Docklands.”