Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 11 October 2018

Public Accounts Committee

2017 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works
Chapter 6: Lease of Offices at Miesian Plaza

9:00 am

Photo of Alan KellyAlan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The issue of Thornton Hall has been aired quite a bit. We all know the taxpayer lost out massively. Some of the details of the others, however, have not been aired and certainly not with the knowledge in this report. This is down to a level of detail that has never been seen before. I am completely dissatisfied with the manner of the response being given here. I came in here to give Mr. Buckley a chance to respond. I have no confidence that the issues and the level of detail in this report have been addressed. I also have no confidence that the taxpayer has been protected and will be protected into the future as a consequence of the changes that have been made as a result of this. Equally, I have seen no correspondence to demonstrate that. I say this in advance. This report has gone to the Comptroller and Auditor General. I bet I will be proven right in saying that we will be discussing the issues in this report - I am not prejudicing anything that will happen - in a future report from the Comptroller and Auditor General. It would probably have been done this time around except that the issue of the new home for the HSE took up so much time and space. I expect the Comptroller and Auditor General will be doing the same thing for all of these cases as well. I also expect that will happen, dare I say it, with future cases as well. I am referring to the children's exploration station, the laboratory for the Department of Agriculture, the opera house in Limerick, the Revenue headquarters in Cork and a number of others as well on top of this. I am saying this today. Here is an opportunity in advance for Mr. Buckley to tell me what actions have been taken to ensure that lessons have been learned from this and there has been acknowledgement that mistakes were made.

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