Shane Cassells (Meath West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Buckley referred to problems in the planning process. Will he take me through it?

Let us take the timeline in chapter 6.5 of the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General on the interaction between Mr. Buckley’s office and the Secretary General in the Department of Health and the issues which arose from 2016 onwards. A red flag was raised in October 2016 when the Secretary General wrote to the chairman of the OPW stating that, based on the plans provided, the Department of Health could not at that stage proceed with the relocation. Chapter 6.46 of the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General states: “The main issues were in relation to the open plan working environment and the allocation of open plan workstations to assistant principal officers, who at that time were accommodated in individual cellular offices in Hawkins House”. Will Mr. Buckley take me through the timeline of when all of these red flags were being raised in the build-up to the negotiations, the lease and so forth?