Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 8 February 2023
Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 11 - Public Expenditure and Reform (Revised)
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances (Revised)
Vote 14 - State Laboratory (Revised)
Vote 15 - Secret Service (Revised)
Vote 17 - Public Appointments Service (Revised)
Vote 18 - National Shared Services Office (Revised)
Vote 19 - Office of the Ombudsman (Revised)
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement (Revised)
Vote 43 - Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (Revised)
Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source
I have a couple of other questions, but I will ask one final question on this subject. In the context of building faults that emerge after the event and it falls to the Government to us Exchequer funding to remedy them, apropos of nothing but apropos of everything, I am interested in those that did not have faults, those whose construction was in keeping with the best possible standards and where no liability landed on the State afterwards. How do we proceed in that regard in terms of equality of treatment? For example, what if I were involved in large construction contracts and decided that I was going to cut corners all over the place and avoid my responsibilities - and insurance companies avoided their responsibilities - despite the fact that legislation is in place in that regard? The Building Control Act was supposed to carry with it responsibilities for insurance companies, professionals, local authorities and everybody else. Obviously, none of those responsibilities was shouldered. If they had been, the State would not have had to dip its hand into its pocket. It was a very urgent cause.
No comments