Bobby Aylward (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to start with a comment about the cinema in Galway given that everyone has spoken about it. To me it looks like a calamity of errors from 2006 to 2018. I will not go over it all again because the witnesses have answered enough questions on it. I cannot understand how that could have happened given that professional people were brought in and four site investigations were carried out with architects and engineers. Ground conditions seem to have been the problem. There was water logging. Ground works were carried out and then a neighbouring property was damaged and that had to be rebuilt. To me, that is laughable. Professional people were involved who were supposed to have degrees and accreditation to carry out site visits and yet we see what happened. That does not make sense. It does not add up. It is poor project management. Who is paying for it? The taxpayer. A total of €8.4 million was spent. I will not say it has gone down the Swanee because at least we have a cinema there. It took a private operator to come in and finish the project. Questions must be asked all around. I thank the Comptroller and Auditor General for his analysis today and what was presented. It shows that there was something seriously wrong. Why are there not better systems in place to stop that happening? It took 12 years for the project to come to a conclusion. That is just an overview.