Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Keegan and the other officials for coming before the committee. I sought this meeting last year because I am very concerned about the €96.3 million spent, with €4 million recovered from the PPP company. The rest has come from the public purse and on my last glance, there is no evidence of it on the site. The public has not seen any goods.

I recognise that the witness is relatively new in his position and there is a long history to this that I have tried to follow, including its various twists and turns. The public has been absolutely astonished at the sum of money that has been spent to date and the fact that there is no product at the end in the form of a waste management facility. I know that elected members on Dublin City Council of various shades of political opinion are extremely concerned; members from my party are extremely concerned about the issue. I want to tease out what has happened and how we can move forward, or at least stop the hole from getting deeper. Do we need to take the shovel from people's hands in order to stop them digging?

With regard to authorisation of the spend to the date, local authority members have tried to get sight of the contracts but the information is commercially sensitive and they have not been able to get that. There has been no accountability regarding what is in those contracts. Who has authorised the payments over the past ten years?

What does Mr. Keegan, as the new city manager, think of what has happened to date? Even during the boom expenditure of €96.3 million was causing concern but in the present circumstances how we spend every penny matters. Let me put the expenditure in context. The sum of €96 million is almost treble what has been spent on housing grants this year. Have we got value for money?