Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Yes, it is quite shortly and I think the OPW was given that responsibility in May and it is now October. I understand the OPW may have rectified the absence of qualified engineers, chartered surveyors and so on, because this came up at this committee before. It obviously needs a measure of technical expertise to be able to manage projects and so on. However, that is in respect of the OPW itself. My suggestion to Mr. Moloney is his Department also needs such expertise. We have raised legal costs relating to the accounts. Mr. Moloney raised in his opening statement that the Department is now including legal costs and so on but we still regard that as insufficient, having regard to the Department's own code of practice for what needs to be included in the accounts of State bodies and indeed from a legislative perspective what we have said private bodies need to do. It should be in the appropriation accounts.

There should be information concerning temporary agency staffing. Crucially, it should include gender. Let us turn, however, to what I am talking about, which is expertise and the question of the expertise available to the State so we do not have to outsource every thought to KPMG. We are more than well able to do it ourselves. To be able to properly oversee the delivery of projects funded by the taxpayers and that the Oireachtas has voted money towards, I suggest it is the Department's responsibility to ensure these projects are delivered and that to do this it requires a measure of technical expertise to be able to probe the delivery of these different projects.