Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome Mr. Conlon and all the other witnesses. Turning to the bike shelter for a few minutes, I do not know if Mr. Conlon saw anybody taking photographs with it on his way in. I say that in jest but I say it with a tinge of seriousness because I often see people, through the National Gallery fence, getting selfies with the bike shelter. That shows how serious the cost overruns on this project have been. The OPW has acknowledged that and I welcome that acknowledgement.

For one of his first appearances here at the Committee of Public Accounts in this role, it is good for us to engage with Mr. Conlon but for him to realise the seriousness of the situation at hand.

Deputy McAuliffe referred to the fact that this matter is being raised by the public at large to this day. They are aghast at the cost overrun. An obscene amount of money has been spent. I know Ms Collier said she will furnish us with a copy of the correspondence, which is welcome. That is something we should see because obviously it involves a request from the body politic to the commission, which forwarded it to the OPW. The witnesses highlighted what I think they called "the Dublin team", the group in the OPW that assesses the requests from various "tenants" - for want of a better word - of its buildings. When the witnesses were speaking earlier, I was thinking about all the requests related to Garda stations, including in respect of wiring, works to be done and facilities. For months, if not years, gardaí were looking for works to be done at the station in Kill of the Grange. The week that station was closed – I kid you not – the OPW went in and carried out fire works on the building. You could not make it up. Think of the amount of money spent. I raised this with the OPW a number of years ago at a meeting of this committee because I found it galling that the works were done just before the station was closed. It made no sense. Equally, the cost overrun related to the project under discussion does not make any sense.

Once the request went from the Oireachtas Commission to the Dublin team, who assessed the location required for a covered shelter?