Mr. Ronnie Downes:

The Deputy's first question was about projects that straddle a number of Departments - he gave the example of Garda stations - and what level of oversight the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has. Generally speaking, those kinds of exercises tend to work relatively seamlessly without any particular need for the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to have to get involved. There is plenty of capacity within the justice sector and within the OPW, which has a lot of expertise in dealing with these kinds of works along the lines of the one mentioned by the Deputy. There are good working relationships with the National Development Finance Agency, NDFA, which gives expert advice on PPPs and different financing models. There is no particular need for us to be the guiding hand that gets involved with each project even where projects straddle some Departments or agencies.

I will make a point that goes back to a more general issue arising from questions about capabilities and delivery capability within the public service. One of the bodies of work that has been undertaken as part of the analysis arising from the phase 1 review of the national development plan, NDP, was the commissioning of advisory firm EY to take a look at capabilities within the public service to deliver on public construction. That report, Supporting Excellence, made a number of recommendations. It highlighted the fact that many areas within the public service had built up a lot of expertise over the years on how best to manage, procure and ensure good governance of capital projects in bodies like Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, Irish Water and in other sectors. There are other bodies, possibly smaller agencies, which traditionally would not have had a large capital budget and whose capabilities need to develop over time.