The Optus Glean promise: predictability
Three pillars. Three commitments. No exceptions.
Predictable cost. One fixed monthly fee, set against a defined scope and an annual indexed review. No variable hours. No surprise invoices. No padded callout charges. Budgeted once, paid by Direct Debit, reviewed once a year.
Predictable presence. The site is cleaned every day it is meant to be cleaned. A named primary cleaner is rostered to your contract, supported by a named relief who is already vetted, inducted, and trained on the same colour-coded system and IPC standard. The schedule does not depend on whether one person is available on one day.
Predictable freedom. A single point of accountability. One contract. One named manager. One number to call. Cleaning is no longer a problem the office has to manage — it is a service that runs.
Why cleaning in Ireland is structurally hard to get right
Most cleaning provision in Ireland — including in healthcare-adjacent settings — is delivered by a workforce that is structurally part-time and casual. A significant proportion of operatives across the sector also work as healthcare assistants in nursing homes, residential care, and acute hospitals. Cleaning shifts are typically taken when healthcare shifts are not available, and released when they are. This pattern is consistent with CSO labour data on accommodation, food, and administrative-support employment, and it is the underlying reason that buyers across Ireland encounter inconsistency from agencies they have contracted in good faith.
The pattern is reinforced by two background pressures specific to Ireland. Housing affordability limits the catchment for any role paying at or near the minimum wage. The Contract Cleaning Employment Regulation Order rate of €14.80 per hour for 2026, set under the Labour Court's sectoral employment framework, sits close enough to flexible care-sector pay that operatives drift toward whichever shift pays slightly more on the day. Both pressures pull cleaning staff away from contracted shifts and toward casual healthcare work.
The result, from the buyer's perspective, is the experience most practice managers, facilities leads, and procurement officers in Ireland describe: a clean that is half-completed when the contracted cleaner is available, missed entirely when they are not, and accompanied by recurring conversations with the agency about cover that may or may not arrive.
This is the structural problem Optus Glean is built to solve. Our operatives are fully PAYE-employed with guaranteed weekly hours, paid leave, and pension contributions under Irish auto-enrolment. They are paid above the ERO floor deliberately — because the structural reliability of the service depends on the cleaner choosing to remain in the role rather than rotating through casual healthcare shifts. A named primary cleaner is assigned to your site, supported by a named relief, both Garda-vetted and trained to Optus Glean's documented HIQA-aligned IPC standard.
Why Solicitor Practices Need Specialist Cleaning
Solicitor practices and law firms in Ireland handle some of the most sensitive and confidential information in the country. From conveyancing files to criminal case records, from family law proceedings to corporate transactions — every document in a solicitor's office is protected by legal professional privilege and strict confidentiality obligations set out by the Law Society of Ireland. A cleaning operative who inadvertently reads a case file, moves a document, or disposes of a file incorrectly could compromise a client's legal position and expose the practice to professional liability.
Beyond document security, a solicitor's office is also a place where clients arrive at some of the most stressful moments of their lives — buying a home, going through a divorce, facing criminal charges, dealing with a bereavement. The physical environment of the practice must project calm professionalism, competence, and trustworthiness. A dusty reception, stained carpet, or cluttered meeting room undermines that impression instantly.
Optus Glean provides dedicated cleaning teams for solicitor practices across Ireland. Every operative is Garda vetted, trained in confidential document handling, and bound by a confidentiality agreement aligned with Law Society data protection requirements. We assign the same team to each firm every evening, providing familiarity, consistency, and reduced security risk.
Office Cleaning for Law Firms
A law firm has distinct areas with different cleaning requirements. Partner and associate offices contain confidential files, client records, and case notes that must never be disturbed. Meeting rooms and consultation rooms must be immaculate for client appointments. Reception and waiting areas set the first impression. Archive rooms store decades of legal files requiring careful environmental management.
Our law firm cleaning programme is comprehensive and covers every area of the practice.
- Solicitor offices: desk cleaning around files (no documents moved), floor vacuuming and mopping, bin emptying, surface dusting
- Meeting and consultation rooms: table and chair sanitation, glass cleaning, carpet care, refreshment area cleaning
- Reception and waiting area: desk cleaning, seating, magazine displays, entrance matting, hand sanitiser stations
- Staff areas: kitchen and break room cleaning, washroom deep cleaning, consumable replenishment
- Archive rooms: floor cleaning, shelf dusting without disturbing files, climate and pest monitoring
- Corridors and common areas: floor care, light fittings, fire safety equipment access points
Document Security and Clean Desk Protocol
The cornerstone of our solicitor office cleaning service is the document security protocol. Every operative assigned to a law firm receives specific training in confidential document handling before they begin work on site. This training covers the Law Society of Ireland's requirements for document security, GDPR obligations, and the specific clean desk policy of each client firm.
Our document security protocol includes the following rules, which are non-negotiable for all law firm assignments.
- Documents on desks are never touched, moved, or read — desks are cleaned around open files
- Fallen documents are placed face-down on the nearest desk without being read
- Shredder bins, confidential waste bags, and secure document containers are never opened
- Filing cabinets, desk drawers, and locked storage are never opened
- Computer screens are cleaned but never read — operatives are trained to look at the screen surface, not the content
- All operatives sign confidentiality agreements covering legal professional privilege, GDPR, and client data protection
- Supervisor spot checks verify compliance on a monthly basis
These protocols are documented in the practice-specific cleaning specification, reviewed with the practice manager during onboarding, and updated whenever the firm's procedures change.
Meeting Room and Client Reception Cleaning
Client-facing areas in a solicitor's office must be pristine before the first appointment of each day. A client arriving for a consultation about their family home, their business, or their liberty needs to feel that they are in capable, professional hands. The physical environment of the meeting room plays a significant role in establishing that trust.
Optus Glean ensures that every meeting room and reception area is cleaned to the highest standard each evening.
- Conference tables and chairs: wiped, sanitised, and positioned correctly
- Glass partitions and doors: streak-free cleaning inside and out
- Carpet: vacuumed nightly, spot-treated as needed, deep cleaned quarterly
- Reception desk: cleaned, sanitised, visitor sign-in area tidied
- Waiting area seating: cleaned and sanitised, cushions straightened
- Refreshment facilities: coffee machine area cleaned, cups and glasses washed, supplies checked
- Window cleaning: internal glass cleaned weekly, external windows quarterly
Archive Room and Document Storage Cleaning
Many solicitor practices maintain extensive physical archives containing decades of client files, deeds, wills, and legal records. These archive rooms require specialist cleaning that protects the documents from dust accumulation, damp, pest damage, and deterioration while maintaining a clean, accessible environment for file retrieval.
Our archive room cleaning service is designed specifically for document storage environments. We clean floors using low-moisture methods that eliminate damp risk. We dust shelving units using microfibre cloths that capture dust without dispersing it into the air. We never move, rearrange, or handle archived documents. We check for signs of pest activity (silverfish, rodents, moths) and report any concerns to the practice manager immediately. We monitor temperature and humidity levels and flag any readings outside the recommended range for document storage (18–22°C, 45–55% relative humidity).
Solicitor Office Cleaning Pricing
Law firm cleaning pricing depends on the size of the practice, the number of offices and meeting rooms, archive storage requirements, and cleaning frequency. Below are indicative 2026 pricing ranges for Ireland.
| Service | Price Range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Small practice (1-2 solicitors) | €500 – €750/month | 5 nights/week, after hours |
| Mid-sized firm (5-10 solicitors) | €750 – €1,100/month | Offices + meeting rooms + reception |
| Large law firm (10+ solicitors) | €1,100 – €1,400+/month | Multi-floor, full service |
| Archive room cleaning (add-on) | €100 – €300/month | Weekly or fortnightly |
| Quarterly deep clean | €400 – €900 | Carpets, upholstery, hard floors |
Note: Prices exclusive of VAT. Multi-office firms with premises in different locations benefit from volume discounts. All pricing includes Garda-vetted staff, confidentiality protocols, and compliance documentation.
After-Hours Access and Security Procedures
Solicitor practices typically require cleaning to be completed after the last staff member has left for the evening. Our team leaders are entrusted with office keys, alarm codes, and security access credentials. They follow documented procedures for entering and leaving the premises: deactivating the alarm, completing the clean, re-activating the alarm, locking all access points, and logging the entry and exit times. If an alarm is triggered accidentally, our team leader follows the agreed escalation procedure, contacting the practice manager and the alarm monitoring company immediately.
For practices where solicitors work late unpredictably, we accommodate flexible start times. Our operatives are trained to work around occupied offices without disturbing the solicitor — cleaning common areas first and returning to individual offices once they are vacated. This flexibility ensures that cleaning is always completed without disrupting late-working partners or associates.
Serving Law Firms Across Ireland
Optus Glean provides solicitor and law office cleaning services in every county in Ireland. We work with sole practitioners, small partnerships, mid-sized firms, and large practices. Whether you are a family law specialist in Dublin, a conveyancing practice in Cork, a general practice in Galway, or a commercial law firm in Limerick, we have the vetted teams, the confidentiality systems, and the professional standards to deliver trustworthy cleaning for your practice.
Frequently asked questions
How much does office cleaning cost in Ireland in 2026?
A corporate office is priced as a fixed monthly fee per site (or per floor, for multi-tenant buildings), tied to a defined scope and frequency. The Contract Cleaning ERO 2026 sets a €14.80/hour labour floor across the sector, but reputable providers quote the contract — multi-year term, annual indexed review, single monthly Direct Debit — not the hour. Pre-opening reset windows and out-of-hours deep cleans are inside the fee.
What standards apply to office cleaning in Ireland?
The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 obliges the employer to maintain a safe workplace, supported by the General Application Regulations 2007. The cleaning programme should produce a documented audit trail — chemical SDS, signed-off task records, training register — that supports the office manager's safety statement and ESG reporting on supply-chain labour standards.
Why is cleaning consistency such a problem in Irish office buildings?
Most Irish cleaning provision is delivered by part-time or casual operatives, frequently subcontracted from one agency to another without disclosure, often paid at or near the ERO floor with no continuity to the site. The result is a different cleaner most weeks, no real quality baseline across floors, and tenant complaints that surface six months into a 36-month contract.
What does ESG-aligned cleaning supply actually mean?
ESG-aligned cleaning means the labour in your supply chain is documented and lawful: PAYE-employed staff (not casual), paid above the Contract Cleaning ERO €14.80/hour floor, with paid leave and PRSI/pension contributions. It also means the chemical regime has SDS on file, waste streams are tracked under the Waste Management Acts, and the provider can answer a tenant or auditor question on day one. ESG is not a sticker — it is auditable supply-chain integrity.
What's the difference between PAYE and casual cleaning contracts in corporate?
A PAYE-employed cleaner is on payroll with the company that signs the contract, paid above the Contract Cleaning ERO floor, with paid leave and pension. A casual or self-employed operative is none of those things — and is often subcontracted in via a labour agency the buyer never signed with. PAYE staffing is the only model that supports a named primary cleaner per floor with continuity, and the only one that survives an ESG supply-chain audit.
How do I evaluate a cleaning provider for a multi-floor office?
Three checks. One: are the operatives PAYE-employed by the company that signs the contract, or subcontracted? Ask for a written commitment, not a tagline. Two: who is the named primary cleaner and named relief per floor or zone? Three: can the provider produce a transparent reporting pack — daily/weekly logs, audit scores, tenant feedback — that ties scope to evidence?
What should be in a cleaning contract for a corporate office?
Scope and frequencies per zone (workstations, meeting rooms, washrooms, kitchens, lift lobbies, reception), pre-opening reset window, named primary cleaner and named relief, the chemical regime with SDS, ESG and supply-chain confirmations, fixed monthly fee, annual indexed review, transparent KPIs and reporting, and a clean exit clause. No per-hour pricing. No undisclosed subcontracting.
How often should an office be professionally cleaned?
A typical corporate office runs a daily out-of-hours core clean (workstations, washrooms, kitchens, communal areas), a pre-opening morning reset where occupancy is heavy, weekly periodic tasks (high-level dusting, glass), and quarterly or six-monthly deep cleans (carpets, soft furnishings, fabric). In Ireland, multi-tenant buildings often add a midday washroom check and lift-lobby reset.
How Optus Glean handles staff shortages
Every Optus Glean contract is staffed on a redundancy model rather than a single-person model. A named primary cleaner is assigned to the site at contract start. A named relief is assigned alongside them. Both are PAYE-employed by Optus Glean, both are Garda-vetted, both are inducted on the site's specific layout, access protocols, and colour-coded equipment system, and both are trained to the same documented HIQA-aligned IPC standard. Substitution is built into the contract from the first day, not arranged on the day cover is needed.
Sick day cover. When the primary cleaner is unable to work, the named relief is deployed. The office site contact is notified by 06:30 on the morning of the absence by SMS or email, with the name of the relief who is attending. The relief follows the same task list, uses the same equipment, and finishes within the same window. The standard of clean is unchanged because the relief was prepared for this scenario before the absence happened.
Annual leave cover. Annual leave is rostered weeks in advance and the relief is scheduled to cover the full leave period. The office is informed at the start of the leave period — not on the morning leave begins. This is the same model used in clinical rota management: known absences are pre-staffed, not improvised.
Long-term cover. If the primary cleaner is absent for more than two weeks (extended illness, parental leave, bereavement leave), cover is drawn from the wider trained bench rather than relying on the single named relief. The office is kept informed of the cover plan, the named individuals involved, and the expected duration. Continuity of standard is maintained because every operative on the bench is trained to the same documented standard.
Permanent reassignment. If the primary cleaner moves to a new permanent role within Optus Glean — promotion, relocation, retirement — the relief is promoted to primary on a planned timetable, a new relief is trained on the site, and both are introduced to the office before the handover takes effect. There is no day on which the office discovers, after the fact, that their cleaner has changed.
Substitution is Optus Glean's operational problem, not the office's risk to absorb. The buyer pays a fixed monthly fee for a defined scope to be delivered, every day it is meant to be delivered. The mechanism by which we deliver it — primary, relief, bench, retraining — is our cost to manage and our risk to carry.
Last reviewed: 2026-05-06
