Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

In the discussion earlier, some of my colleagues raised the issue of value for money. One of the problems that is arising now is the timeframe from the time a project is started to the time it finally gets approval. For instance, the documentation on the new elective hospital for Cork was submitted by the South/Southwest Hospital Group in January, and we still do not have a decision from the Department because it has to go through the Department of Health and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

The figures given in January are in real terms a kind of estimate of what they would be now. It is not necessarily saying that it was an inaccurate estimate. The figures are now completely irrelevant because the whole issue of costs has changed substantially. Does the Secretary General not think that it is time now for all Departments to look at the way we assess projects and the timeframe it is taking to do so? I will give the Secretary General one example. I know of a project in my own constituency which started off as planning for a school. A Government agency objected to the planning and took it all of the way to An Bord Pleanála. Its argument was that the local sewage treatment facility did not have capacity, even though it was an existing school which was already connected into that system. The people gave an undertaking that the school would not increase its numbers but the appeal still went all the way to An Bord Pleanála.

Does the Secretary General not think that we need to look at this whole issue of the delaying of projects and how we can deliver them more quickly, especially where the decision-making process needs to be looked at?