Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is the first issue I wanted to raise before we our work gets under way. The second issue is also related to the Office of Public Works. The Committee of Public Accounts issued its periodic report on 23 January 2018 and one of the issues it dealt with was the reopening Garda stations. One of the recommendations of our report was that the cost implications of the review to reopen Garda stations should be considered in the context of the 2018 Estimates. This need not be written down. The report was published by the Committee of Public Account. We recently received a response to our recommendation from Mr. Robert Watt, Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, dated 18 July 2018. We sent a letter to his Department in January 2018 asking that the costs of reopening Stepaside Garda station and some other Garda stations be considered in the context of the 2018 Estimates, bearing in mind that the decision was made in June 2017. We reported on that in January 2018.

Mr. Watt's reply states:

The Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform is informed by the Department of Justice and Equality and An Garda Síochána that this recommendation is accepted in principle. The 2018 estimate provision for An Garda Síochána is long since complete. However, over recent months, An Garda Síochána and the Office of Public Works have been working to quantify the final projected costs to reopen all six stations. An Garda Síochána indicates that the estimated costings produced will be reviewed and discussed with the sanctioning authorities, the Departments of Justice and Equality and Public Expenditure and Reform, once concluded.

As Chairman of the Committee on Public Accounts, I find it totally unsatisfactory that the Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform took seven months to reply to our recommendation. We wrote to Mr. Watt early in the year to give him plenty of advance notice for this matter to be raised in the Estimates in 2018. He wrote to us in July saying he was sorry but the Estimates were over. The matter should have been encompassed in the 2018 Estimate, as recommended by this committee. Mr. Watt states that while he agrees in principle with our recommendation, it is too late. That is an unsatisfactory response and delay and we want to ensure there is accountability. Given that it may not have happened in 2018, I will put a question on it to Mr. Buckley now because this follows directly from the report we published. If we are to do our business, we need to follow through on our recommendations. Mr. Buckley says in his briefing note today that in February 2018 he received the final brief in respect of Stepaside. He said the OPW has to issue a notice to quit in respect of Stepaside, that it considered a modular solution and is now renovating the existing building, which it hopes to have completed by the end of June 2019. I have seen the Estimates announced by the Minister on budget day. What figure for the reopening of Stepaside Garda station is provided in the Estimates for 2019, given that none was provided in the 2018 Estimate?