Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have a few quick observations. The Estimates are fine. We talked much about the flooding. I compliment the OPW and all involved in the response to the weather events over the past couple of months right across the country. I am delighted that the public finances were in order and we could do that. There was no delay in stepping up across a number of Departments to provide support to individuals, those in houses and businesses, as well as the local authorities. That has to be complimented. It is often taken for granted in this country. We have had many weather events over the past number of years that we have been able to deal with. I know, in some cases, people want the finances right away but being assured that the finance is on the way often gives people enough peace of mind as they deal with difficult situations. We cannot take that for granted and I compliment that.

Perhaps not today, but at some stage, would the Minister of State be able to give us a view on the new planning Bill that is coming through? I am conscious it was only published in detail yesterday. While the Minister of State’s officials were probably involved in some parts of that, it would be important to get the OPW’s view on it. It has been brought forward to try to fix planning delays which can cause great complications in projects it is trying to implement.

Regarding Project Ireland 2040 as well, there is an issue with planning delays. The new planning Bill seeks to assist with that while respecting everyone’s rights and dealing with their concerns. I hope we will deal with that as well. It is important we get it right. Any first version of a Bill might not be perfect so it will be important to get views of all Ministers here in the weeks and months ahead as we get that Bill through, if that is okay. I hope they will share those views with us here.

I compliment the relationship between the local authorities and the OPW in dealing with sites and buildings and the handling of that. It takes time. Some cases can be a pain in the rear end but eventually we get there, and it is important we do that. I have one ask. I ask that there might be a review. In general, in respect of OPW-owned or OPW-leased buildings across Departments, how good are we at sharing and accommodating across Departments?

Sometimes I hear of protracted delays or discussions on sharing space or facilities, which really should not happen nowadays. However, we still hear of it. Perhaps not for today, but could there be an audit or a review on how we are at sharing spaces and making sure that, within buildings we own as a Government, large office spaces are not left unused? It can happen from time to time and we should try to prevent that happening if at all possible.

On the children's hospital, one point is often missed. Most people comment on this without even reading the reports or the documents. If a decision had not been made to move along with that project a number of years ago, we still would not even be started. Sometimes, we can wait for perfection but get nowhere. Systems were put in place there to deal with cost claims, changes in design and all the procedures around that. I have looked through most of those procedures. They are there and they make sense. In most cases, it brings people around the table to thrash them out. If that was not done, nobody would bid to take on a project of that scale. Nobody would go near it. That is often missed. Corrections were made along the way but, in general, the right approach was taken to get that project started so that we are now in a situation that we can talk about its completion and its opening in 2024 or 2025. If we had not moved on with it, we would not be anywhere near this and would be waiting 20 more years. We are a long time talking about it and I am glad the project is up and running and in place.

The Minister of State referred to analysis conducted across the EU of public projects and a comparison, and we do quite well in that. Very often, what is missed in the conversation is that we only discuss the public projects because it is taxpayers' money. We hear about complications, overruns, and delays, which are probably pretty normal in construction right across all projects, but we do not discuss the private ones because they are private. Some of them are large-scale projects and we are very familiar with them. It is not something for today, but there may be an analysis comparing public projects of scale with private ones. I suspect when I talk to private operators of large-scale projects, there are similar situations because it is common sense in most cases. There are large construction projects that will come across barriers, delays, complications and cost claims that are quite normal but the public discourse is often that it is totally and utterly abnormal and that it only happens with public buildings. This then gives rise to questions about whether taxpayers' money is being lost or abused, which in most cases, it is not. I absolutely agree that we have to go to great lengths to make sure it is not. However, the reality of it is that projects have a similar storyline, be they public or private, but we only hear one side of it. It would be great to get analysis or some understanding on how it is being compared as well.