Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Please do.

Deputy Paul McAuliffe:I thank the Chair. It is a simple enough matter. I would like us to get a response from the Department on this. It refers to the Whitehall College of Further Education building constructed by Western Building Systems. There is a legal dispute that has resulted in the building not being occupied for several years. To start our work on this, I propose that we write to the Department. I use the word "Department" loosely because at the time we had the Department of Education but now we have the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and the Department of Education. We also have the Office of Public Works which was responsible for construction. Would it be possible to ask the three entities that I have referenced for a response regarding this? Substantial public investment has been made. There are clearly legal challenges but it is not clear why they are not being resolved. It would be a good body of work for the committee to get its teeth into depending on the replies that we get. If we get agreement to send this correspondence, it would be useful.