John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Given the financial mystery tour on which we have been in relation to the funding of Irish Water, where the money comes from and how it is accounted for and all the rest of it, and the comments made by the Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, Mr. Watt, that there could be a role for the Committee on Public Accounts on the general accountability of this money - he wrote and stated something to this effect and that he saw merit in it - will Mr. Heffernan ask Mr. Watt to look at this and to develop it further in light of the conversation we have had this morning on the various moneys and funds going into Irish Water? If Mr. Watt sees merit in it, there might be a point in having the section within Mr. Heffernan's Department looking at this to determine how best we might bring forward a plan which would give this committee an input into it.

I have a request of Mr. Heffernan and Mr. McCarthy on the Tipperary Hostel. I will not go into it now. We had a discussion on this before and we had a reply from the Minister which I felt was unhelpful, in resolving any matter. Will Mr. Heffernan's Department and Mr. McCarthy share the background to this issue, given that it is still not resolved, and come forward with a plan to protect the work already done at this particular location, the cost of which has been to the tune of €6 million or more, and determine how best that investment is going to be protected and the project completed? It is an issue. It is taxpayers' money. If the Departments which have invested in this, through taxpayers' money, came together, we might find an overall resolution to it. It is not good enough to leave this project there. I ask that this will happen.