Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach for attending. Much of the information he provided relates to issues I want to raise with him. I want to make one or two positive suggestions. The first concerns Project Ireland 2040, in respect of which there is a capital expenditure plan worth €140 billion. The level of the national debt was so severe a few years ago it led to our establishing the National Treasury Management Agency, NTMA. The Taoiseach should now set up a national capital project agency - similar to the NTMA - to handle all the big projects and gather all the experts together within one agency. The type of projects involved would be those costing more than €20 million; school building projects can progress at their current level.

As the Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, I am saying we have had mistakes with the national children's hospital, we might have mistakes with the broadband issue and there are more. When running a major capital project it is not right to have every Secretary General be responsible for the capital investment in their own Department, with each of them making their own individual mistakes and no overall learning capacity. I see merit in having one State agency. It would build up tremendous expertise and knowledge about procurement. Above all, it would free the line Departments to do their main work. For example, with the national children's hospital the head of the HSE, the Secretary General of the Department and senior officials are spending much of their time dealing with a construction project when they should be dealing with health issues. Having such an agency would free up their time.