Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There are a number of issues and I will try to add to what has been said, as opposed to going over old ground. At the end of the report it is stated, "A project of this scale and complexity requires specialist expertise". I find that comment insulting, and it takes members of the public for fools, not least the members of this committee. I agree with Deputy Cullinane on the lack of candour. These are the kind of things that should be brought to our attention. If it is a small note in the accounts, it can be easily missed given the volume of stuff we are dealing with. The Houses of the Oireachtas Commission has a good reputation for doing its business well, particularly when costs had to be cut during the time of austerity and the crash.

A couple of questions arise. First, and I think the public is entitled to know this, was the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission apprised of this and what role did it play in taking the decision in the first instance as to why new printers were required, the cost etc.? It may well have been, but I believe the public is anxious to know why we are spending €1 million or thereabouts on a new printer in the first place. Second, what is the Oireachtas contracts committee, who is on it, and would this committee like to talk to us? I never heard of it and I am interested to know who is on it and what role it played. Third, there is the print users council. As a former member of the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission and of that council itself, I want to know if it had any role. My understanding from the short period I was on it is that its role is oversight in terms of the eligibility of content requested for printing, in order that it is not overly political. Was this council involved in this process? Those are three groups that I am interested in hearing from: the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission, which includes Members of the Oireachtas, the print users council, and the contracts committee.

I find the phrase "A project of this scale and complexity" insulting because what we have done here is to have applied the children's hospital approach to public procurement. Let us buy it and stuff it in. Another sentence reads, "I have yet to establish how or if this information was processed within the Houses of the Oireachtas Service". That is Mr. Finnegan's reference to the lack of understanding of the headroom. In the tender document it said that it must be able to fit in the room. The report tells us that there were site visits and further liaisons. That is a basic requirement. If it does not fit in the room, how does an applicant win the tender? If an applicant did win the tender and it did not fit in the room, how did the applicant get paid? There is a reference to there being a lack of understanding. Sixty-six more centimetres were needed, they would get 31 once the false ceiling was removed, but they were still 30 plus centimetres short. The printer did not fit. That was another problem. They brought in the OPW then, and for all its wonderful expertise, it had no structural engineers. They had to bring in external consultants. This has been a total pig's ear.

As always happens at this committee when matters like this emerge, and there are a few at least every year that capture the media's attention in a major way, and I have said this many times here before, there are no tangible sanctions when we have blatant incompetence. It can be dressed up as being very complex, but there was correspondence today from the chairman of the Office of Public Works about the disaster that is Miesian Plaza. I am still laughing about the day when I asked at this committee if there was a disciplinary process on foot of it, and I was told it was not a disciplinary matter. When I asked who was to blame, the OPW witness said he probably shared some of the blame because he signed off on it.

Would such people last the rest of the day in the private sector? They certainly would not be there after a month. In this instance, people are entitled to look for a head. We cannot have a level of autopilot that leads to waste and a loss of money that is down to pure incompetence. There is nothing complex about this at all. It is basic cop-on. No university degree, masters or PhD qualification is required, just simple cop-on. The seven-page report may as well be thrown into the nearest shredder as far as I am concerned. It is an utter disgrace and it is going on in every aspect of Departments and State agencies. We blame it on systemic failure in a very complex process, where very specialised people are required to advise us on this. Either we are populated as a State by a bunch of incompetents, ourselves politically included, or people start accounting for their actions and their responsibilities. That is how the world operates in the private sector, and it needs to begin in here.

I know enough about how this happened. There are people in responsible roles in command. Let someone tell us now who is responsible and what disciplinary action is going to be required. In another room in the Houses of the Oireachtas at the moment, there is a hearing of committee to consider tangible action for wrongdoing, and rightly so. It is about time our public services and individuals who are paid high salaries, ourselves as politicians included, had to answer and face tangible sanction for blatant incompetence.