Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 15 December 2022

Public Accounts Committee

2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works
Chapter 8 - Contract payments in respect of Convention Centre Dublin

9:30 am

Mr. Maurice Buckley:

If I may complete the question, we started from scratch and developed an alternative scheme. That involved removing the Séamus Rafter bridge and building a new bridge outside town. From an environmental perspective, which is difficult territory, it involved deepening the riverbed. That riverbed has trace amounts of fresh oyster pearl mussels, lamprey and vegetation. This is always a subjective matter of opinion. We and our experts felt that this could be compensated and would restore two or three years after the work was done on the river. The experts used by the Minister in making the consent assessment came to a different conclusion. That can happen. The world is changing. We are totally focused on human life, properties and risk.

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