Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 7 July 2022

Public Accounts Committee

2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 26 - Education
2018 Report on the Accounts of the Public Services of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 7 - Purchase of Sites for School Provision
2019 Report on the Accounts of the Public Services of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 8 - Management of the Schools Estate

9:30 am

Photo of Catherine MurphyCatherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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If Mr. Loftus cannot answer me about that particular school, I would like to get an answer or a note on that because I am finding it difficult to get information by way of parliamentary question. However, that, effectively, is what has happened.

I would like to ask Mr. Loftus about another one where there was a problem. It was on the building programme and should have commenced in 2018. I refer to the Mercy Convent in Naas. A 24-classroom school, it is not completed yet because we have gone to stage 6 as opposed to stage 5. Stage 6 is when one's contractor terminates and one has to re-tender. That is my description of it anyway. There will be additional costs associated with that. I would like to know why the contract was terminated. It is important that we understand why this happened so that it does not happen again. There would have been additional costs in that there was security on the site on a permanent basis. There were temporary buildings put in for a protracted period of time because the pupils were there and required the accommodation. At one point, there were subcontractors shut out of the site. Obviously, there would be an additional cost associated with that because they could not get their plant and equipment. It is to go back to tender now. It certainly will not be completed until there is a tender and somebody gets back in on the site. It is unlikely to be completed this year. It should have commenced in 2018. One would nearly build the children's hospital in the time that it will take to build this particular school. Can Mr. Loftus give us some indication of how one prevents that kind of, not unique but unusual, thing happening where it will add to the cost and create chaos? There are children who have gone through their entire schooling in temporary accommodation because of what has happened there. Does Mr. Loftus know what happened there?