Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 30 January 2014

Public Accounts Committee

2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Land Swap Arrangement in the Provision of Affordable Houses
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works

10:50 am

Photo of Seán FlemingSeán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Unusually, the judge refers to the Chief State Solicitor's office several times in his judgment. In paragraph 15 he says that the Chief State Solicitor's office objected to a final transfer. What is curious about the judgment, and this chapter emanates from that, is that the Affordable Homes Partnership - this is from paragraph 18 of the judgment, which might not be before the Committee of Public Accounts but is a public document in the High Court - was on the one hand asking Mr. Durkan to withdraw the completion notice he wished to serve on the partnership and, at the same time, the partnership, which was a State body, served a completion notice on the Office of Public Works. We now have the two State organisations, the Affordable Homes Partnership and the Office of Public Works, dealing with this and serving legal notices against each other. I thought they were on the same side, which is the taxpayers' side.