Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have no doubt. My question, however, regards wanting to see documentary evidence of this rather than commentary. Can the OPW provide that to the committee after this meeting? I do not expect the witnesses to have it here. I am sure the arguments are valid and just want to know from a management structure point of view that there was a process in place to do this.

I have a number of other questions which I might throw out and they can be answered collectively. In relation to the overruns, I take the comment. It was a good comment that budgeting not budget overruns are done. In relation to value-for-money, is the OPW satisfied that it has been achieved? In relation to the budget overruns, I cannot see a recalibration of the publicised timelines and costs at various junctures. Is the OPW happy from a management point of view that this was communicated? Given the length of the time period, there was a recalibration of the costs. Surely, that was analysed. I do not know if any of us working in public life was made aware of that. If we were, the witnesses might tell us how that happened.

What efforts, if any, were made with local authorities to put SLAs in place? The following is a bugbear of mine. I heard Mr. Adamson talk about working with European colleagues on state-of-the-art technology. The accuracy of the work and the data modelling concerns me greatly. I have referenced this before. I share with Deputy Connolly the belief that lengthy public consultation is necessary, but the length of time these maps are in place in a consultation format is of concern. The data being used in some of the maps are extremely concerning, because I do not believe they are accurate. I am fairly confident that they are inaccurate in many cases. While the public consultation filters down that process, my direct experience from Newport, Tipperary, and other cases where people came to me, is that the computer generated maps are causing real issues and in some cases hardship because local authorities are sometimes making reference to them for planning and development decisions. That is causing serious problems. We understand that there has to be an initial process and that the OPW has to edge it down, but it has to happen more quickly because it is affecting people's daily lives. The issue is sterilisation of decision making when it comes to development or planning, which is having economic impacts in certain parts of the country. Can the OPW let us know about data modelling and accuracy?

I have experienced many minor works projects, some of which are exceptional and work well. Is there a process in place for measuring continually the learnings out of those? What management process is in place to do that? That brings me to the next question. On decisions on demountable versus permanent structures, there have been learnings from cases that made sure that the demountable defences could be used. Is that a continuous process? I am sure it is but I want to see how it is documented.

On budgeting, we talk about looking backwards. I listened to the Comptroller and Auditor General's comments, but on future-proofing for budgeting, I estimate that the scale of the budget required to implement the plans which will come out will be seismic. What processes have been put in place to measure things so that we as public servants collectively can estimate for the future? We have done it already, but is it accurate? Based on the experience and learnings to date and based on the fact that the OPW has not been able to achieve its budget up to a point, for which I accept that there are some legitimate reasons, how can we predict costs into the future? My assessment is that costs here will be seismic. How can the OPW help us in doing that?