TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen is to stay some nights each week in the Steward's House in Farmleigh in the Phoenix Park.
The house was renovated by the Office of Public Works three years ago as a possible taoiseach's residence.
Mr Cowen currently stays some nights in a one-bedroom apartment in St James's Gate which he bought some years ago, but the Garda has raised questions about securing the property.
Mr Cowen said yesterday the Garda was carrying out "a security assessment" of his flat and the Steward's House, and this would be completed in the coming days.
However, speaking on Today FM's Sunday Supplement, Mr Cowen said he would only use the Farmleigh property on nights when it was too late to travel home.
His wife Mary and daughters Sinéad and Maedhbh, who attend schools in Tullamore near the family home, will not move to the four-bedroom Victorian property, he said.
The Farmleigh property was fitted out with a state of the art security system when it was refurbished in 2005.
However, Mr Cowen's predecessor, Bertie Ahern, ruled out using it as a residence - even though he sanctioned the investment in the property.
Gardaí have become increasingly uneasy about the difficulty of providing adequate security for the residences of taoisigh, particularly for those such as Mr Cowen who represent constituencies outside Dublin.
Detectives had looked at the issue before the last general election when faced with the possibility of Mayo-based Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny becoming taoiseach, because he also stays at ainner-city property when he is in the capital.
The Steward's House is several hundred metres away from Farmleigh House, and Mr Cowen's use of it will not impact on the public's access to the main house, or the 40-acre gardens.
Renovated at a cost of nearly €600,000, it has two downstairs reception rooms, a small study and a kitchen and a conservatory, while there are four bedrooms upstairs - one of them en suite.
The property has been fitted with a security hut outside for gardaí and €30,000 was spent landscaping its gardens, which are closed off from the rest of the Farmleigh estate.
The house has been practically idle since its renovation and it was used only once, to accommodate European Union agriculture commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel.
