Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 19 June 2025
Public Accounts Committee
2023 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Report on the Accounts of the Public Services 2023
Chapter 2 - Central Government Funding of Local Authorities
Chapter 11 - Exceptional State Funding of the Peter McVerry Trust
Chapter 12 - Local Infrastructure Housing Activation Fund
Local Government Fund - Account 2023
2:00 am
John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
I will give the example of a fire authority in Wicklow, which procured a considerable amount of equipment in, I think, 2020. It cost tens, if not hundreds, of thousand of euro. That equipment has yet to be used. The latest correspondence I got from the chief fire officer in Wicklow said that, after I had highlighted this issue, they are awaiting guidance at a national level for the use of the equipment. That says to me there is a complete lack of oversight of procurement rules. This issue is replicated across the board, as far as I can see, in all local authorities, which seem to have their own independence regarding procurement of materials for the fire service. Is there no oversight from the Department? It is purely the LGMA accounting?
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