Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

The appropriations account for the Vote for Justice and Equality recorded a gross expenditure of just over €357 million in 2012. Salaries accounted for 37% of gross expenditure. At the end of the year just under 2,300 whole-time equivalent staff were employed in the Department and its related offices.

As well as the administrative costs of the Department, expenditure was incurred on a wide range of services, including legal aid, immigration and asylum, the Probation Service, equality, integration and disability, charities regulation, the Irish youth justice service, the State pathology service, and the Forensic Science Laboratory. The Vote also includes funding for a range of statutory services operating under the aegis of the Department, including the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner, the Criminal Assets Bureau and the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission.

The committee is also considering today a report which concerns an ongoing project to provide new facilities for the State pathology service and the Dublin coroner's office, which operates under the aegis of Dublin City Council. The State pathology service has operated since the 1990s from prefabricated accommodation in Marino on a site owned by the city council. In embarking on the project, the Department acknowledged that the current accommodation lacks the range of facilities required for a modern pathology service. There were also concerns about the security of the current accommodation, given the sensitivity of the work undertaken by the service and the critical dependence of certain prosecutions on the results of the service's work. The location and physical condition of the coroner's mortuary and morgue were also considered unsuitable.

The Department and the council decided in 2006 that the two services could be accommodated in one new building on the site at Marino. Jointly, they developed plans for a new medico-legal centre project which included the construction of a new autopsy facility, body storage facility, a mortuary and other related accommodation. It was agreed that the Department would fund two thirds of the cost of the new centre, with the council to provide the site and the balance of the construction costs. The council took the lead role in project management, including procurement of the necessary professional services, contractor and so on.

In March 2007, the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government raised a planning objection relating to the location of the proposed project site adjacent to an important national monument, the 18th century casino at Marino. It took around a year for the parties to resolve the planning concerns. A tender competition for the construction project was launched in August 2008 and a contractor identified. The proposed contract had been based on what was called the Government Departments and local authorities or GDLA form of contract. However, the Department of Finance had issued new forms of construction contracts in February 2007 which all Government Departments and agencies, including local authorities, were required to use. The project was re-tendered to use the new form of contract.

Following the second public procurement competition, a contract between the council and a builder was signed in June 2010. Work started on the site in July 2010 on what was expected to be a 13 month build. The building contractor went into receivership in November 2010, however, leaving a partially completed structure. Following legal advice, a decision was taken to tender again, this time for completion of the project. The Department informed the city council in 2012 that it would not have the funding to proceed. As a result, the project was deferred indefinitely. The partially constructed premises was demolished in 2013 after deterioration in its physical condition which resulted in it becoming a health and safety hazard.

When my report was being completed, the Department, in conjunction with the city council, was examining the feasibility of pursuing a significantly scaled down project using the vacated Whitehall Garda station which is owned by the Office of Public Works. The net expenditure by the Department and the council on the abandoned project, after recoupment of money under a bond, was €3.3 million with no material benefit from the expenditure accruing to the State. The State pathology office and Dublin coroner's facilities remain in their existing prefabricated accommodation. While lack of availability of funding was a key factor in the abandonment of the project, we noted that ample provision was made in the Vote over the life of the project to cover the Department's contribution had the project proceeded in a timely fashion.

In light of these findings, and those of an examination of the bridge project which I reported on in the 2011 report, I recommended that the Department should review its project risk assessment procedures to ensure adequate steps are taken to secure necessary planning permissions, and to ensure the prevailing procurement and contracting rules are complied with. The Accounting Officer will be in a position to update the committee on developments regarding the currently planned relocation of the service's facilities to Whitehall.