Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 22 March 2018

Public Accounts Committee

2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 4 - Overview of Public Private Partnerships

9:00 am

Mr. Robert Watt:

It has not happened that often that we have had a situation in which a company has been liquidated. Certainly we could look at it. The indirect cost would relate primarily to delay. Pupils hoping to be in a school may be delayed and the question arises as to what the cost of that delay would be where they would have to stay in accommodation which is not as good. There is that cost. In the case of housing, people may have to be housed. We can certainly come back to the Deputy if we can find historical examples where that has happened. It is a challenge we face across the board. There have been cases where we were building accommodation infrastructure, in particular during 2007 to 2011, which companies were not in a position financially to complete. That creates numerous problems for the State which we have to manage our way through as best we can. There were one or two cases where we decided not to finish the works and other cases where we had to take someone on to finish them. The response is case by case by the various bodies.