Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 12 February 2019

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised)

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Will the Minister of State expand on his comment on the €3 million reduction? On profiled capital expenditure, he has a sum of €19.4 million pencilled in in 2019. There is a figure of €3 million for a project in Blackpool; €6 million in Douglas; €5 million in Ennis south; €3 million in Glashaboy; €1.6 million in lower Morell; and €800,000 in Sandymount. According to the Minister of State's earlier references, the cutbacks are largely expected to be made through delays in flood relief schemes. He suggested he would delay them by a number of weeks. Does it mean that will take a slice out of the six projects or will he identify one or two which will experience a longer delay or delays? How will he approach the matter? I presume the projects in Cork are of a piece, or can they be treated separately? Can the Minister of State give us some idea of what will happen? Alternatively, are there other elements of existing programmes which could be cut? I presume there is a certain level of energy in existing programmes and that it would be foolish to stop or delay them and that, therefore, what has been said applies to the new programmes. Given that the schemes cover many properties of families and individuals who are waiting for them, the Minister of State might enlighten us on how he proposes to address the issue. Will he tell us how he will identify the schemes that he will possibly hold back? Will he hold back a clutch of them, or will he merely say, as there are a couple of €3 million projects included, that the Government will hold back the first one, the project in Blackpool, because it is a tidy sum of €3 million and can be easily done? In what way will it be done?

I want to ask about the OPW's relationship with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. The OPW is within the remit of that Department but independent. I do not understand what the Department's involvement is in the oversight of the OPW's budget. While the Department does have a role, the OPW does not in the national children's hospital project. Does the Department look at the OPW's budget? For example, does the Minister, Deputy Donohoe meet the Minister of State before the budget to have a chat with him about what he proposes to do? Do the senior civil servants in the Department such as the Secretary General have a word with the chairman of the OPW or the commissioners in looking at both the capital and current budgets? In my experience as a Minister, this happens on an annual basis for all elements of the budget, capital and current. I wonder what is the experience in the OPW.