It's emerged that the headquarters of An Bord Pleanala is subject to an upward-only rent review.

The board's headquarters on Marlborough Street in Dublin are rented for a fee of one-and-a-quarter million euro per year.

The planning minister Jan O'Sullivan has confirmed to the Dáil that the building's 25-year lease, signed in 2002, only allows for upward revisions in rent.

However she says the rent hasn't been increased since 2007, and that the landlord has agreed not to review the rent again until 2017.