Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is a long-standing issue dating back to the decentralisation programme and particularly the OPW’s involvement with Cork County Council. There is a view that we should not stick our oars into administrative issues arising between the OPW and local authorities but nonetheless it is in my constituency and concerns the site acquired on behalf of the OPW by Cork County Council and funds which are due to be refunded to the council. That needs to be wrapped up.

The OPW recently purchased a site with Cork County Council for a Garda station and a fire station.

The local authority, Cork County Council, is proceeding in-house with its own design for the fire station and the OPW is about to embark on a process to appoint consultants to design a Garda station. It would appear to be desirable on a number of fronts, not least for the economies involved, but also from a design compatibility perspective, that we would have one design team working on the site. I have tentatively raised this issue with the local authority and it has no objection in principle. It would also assist in shrinking the timeline involved in getting a project like this, critical local infrastructure, to a stage where it can proceed to construction. Could the Minister of State confirm that there is not a problem from his side in working with the council, notwithstanding previous hiccups the OPW has had with the council, to resolve a single design team? There could be two very fine designs done by the respective design teams that might not be compatible on a single site and it would be better if one team was designing the fire station and the new Garda station. The Minister of State might address those two issues.