Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 15 December 2022

Public Accounts Committee

2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works
Chapter 8 - Contract payments in respect of Convention Centre Dublin

9:30 am

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

I will just pick up the issue of specialist subcontractors. In the past five days, I was approached by a subcontractor who was cheaper than other subcontractors for a particular project. The OPW instructed the main contractor not to accept this subcontractor even though it had done work previously on OPW projects. It was cheaper and cost-effective, yet the main contractor was instructed not to take it on. Why would that arise?