Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 31 January 2024
Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 11 – Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 – Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 – State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - the Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 – Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 – National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 -the Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised)
Vote 43 – Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (Revised)
Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source
I know things are hard. It is not easy to move a building into use. There will always be challenges and considerations, but it is a fact the State is massively slower than the private sector in these types of projects. I gave an example previously of 3,500 empty local authority homes in the State. It takes the State eight months to fit them back into use and relet them. The time it takes the private sector to do the same thing is, on average, four weeks. The Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, mentioned that local authority lets are often longer and the properties may need more work. I accept that but we have to understand the State is incredibly slower than the private sector in delivering these projects. I am a strong believer in the public sector. I want to see a stronger public sector but I want to see it more efficiently run.
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