Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

We are also told there is a management board which worked on the business case. We need to know the job titles of those involved. I do not imagine the Clerk of the Dáil would be micromanaging this. We need to see where the problems arose in the decision making. We are seeing some of that in the procurement process in respect of the head of communications. One of the dates that jumped out at me reading this report is that the contract was signed on 31 May 2018. The day before that, 30 May 2018, the facilities unit in the Houses of the Oireachtas service contacted the OPW. At the same time it was known that there was a headroom issue. Why was the headroom issue not brought to the OPW's attention from the time that the procurement process opened? That is the critical timeline. I understand that there may have been a fire safety issue and we need to know if that is the case, and if that was ancillary work done at the same time. We do not want Kildare House to go on fire. Has there been any outsourcing in the interim when one machine had to be moved out to fit another one in? Is it costing more? That is an obvious question we should ask.

I do not know how we quite capture the issue on the extent of the printing but I absolutely want that captured. I do not think the Clerk of the Dáil is the person who will deal with that. That is a political issue. We need to find a way to decide what the requirements are, even though this machine has been purchased. It may be possible to print some of the material that is necessary in the Houses and goes out for printing. There is another contract with Cahills for the day to day material. It may be possible to achieve some cost savings if the machine has sufficient capacity.