Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

The 2023 appropriation account for Vote 13, Office of Public Works, records gross expenditure of €657.5 million. Appropriations-in-aid of the Vote amounted to €27.3 million.

The account is presented under two programme headings. Just under €546 million, or 83% of gross expenditure, was spent on the estate management programme. Almost €112 million, or 17% of the total, was spent on the flood risk management programme.

The OPW provides office and other types of accommodation to other central government Departments and offices, using a combination of leased and State-owned property. The associated costs are a direct charge to the estate management programme. This includes rent payments totalling €105.5 million, property maintenance and supply payments of almost €74 million and public private partnership unitary payments amounting to just over €24 million. Costs associated with the OPW's portfolio of heritage properties amounted to €52.6 million in 2023.

Separate from the building activity charged to Vote 13, the OPW also acts on an agency basis on behalf of other Government Departments and agencies. This mainly relates to the carrying out of major capital works, property maintenance and the leasing of accommodation. The expenditure associated with this agency activity is reflected in the appropriation accounts of the client Departments and agencies.

As indicated in note 2.14, expenditure incurred by the OPW on an agency basis, and not reflected in Vote 13, amounted to €315 million in 2023. The surplus on the vote at the year-end was €16.6 million, which was surrendered back to the Exchequer. I issued a clear audit opinion on the appropriation account, but drew attention to two matters disclosed by the Accounting Officer in the statement on internal financial controls: procurements to the value of €9.3 million in 2023 that were not compliant with public procurement rules and an overpayment of VAT liability of €3.2 million to the Revenue Commissioners that occurred as a result of an error in calculating the November-December 2023 payment. The OPW identified the error shortly after the overpayment occurred, and the full amount was recouped from Revenue in January 2024.

It is generally accepted that many adaptations in infrastructure planning and delivery will be required for Ireland to prepare for and respond to the impacts of climate changes. Chapter 4 of my report on the accounts of the public services for 2023 assesses the progress made in implementing the climate change sectoral adaptation plan for flood risk management, for which the OPW is the lead agency. The report also reviews the governance structure in place in the area of climate change adaptation in Ireland, with the focus on flood risk management.

The adaptation plan for flood risk management includes 21 actions, with 15 groups and organisations responsible for implementing these actions. The OPW is responsible solely or jointly for implementing the highest number of actions.

The 2018 national adaptation framework identified the development of appropriate indicators of climate change adaptation as a priority to enable the monitoring and assessment of progress. The flood risk management adaptation plan identified five interim indicators to be used to measure implementation progress. Two of the selected interim indicators relating to flood risk mapping demonstrate full implementation. However, two other interim indicators related to adaptation planning for individual flood risk management projects reflect very little or no progress between 2019 and 2023. Definitive national adaptation indicators had not yet been defined for Ireland as at June 2024.

The report makes recommendations in the areas of formal reporting mechanisms for progress updates on actions, developing process-based indicators to allow meaningful monitoring of progress and consideration of indicators relating to disaster risk reduction and resilience.

Chapter 5 of my report reviews progress in the delivery of the rapid build programme undertaken to provide accommodation for beneficiaries of temporary protection fleeing from the war in Ukraine. The OPW was tasked with delivering the programme, on an agency basis, on behalf of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. The programme, which commenced on a pilot basis, set out initially to deliver 500 modular units to accommodate 2,000 persons by February 2023 at an estimated cost of €100 million, or €200,000 per unit. The number of units for delivery was subsequently adjusted, eventually settling at 654 units.

There were significant difficulties in identifying sufficient suitable sites in public ownership to locate the developments and delivery of the units took longer than initially envisaged. The original target of 500 units was achieved in early August 2024, some 17 months later than planned. Approximately 87% of the final revised programme of units has now been delivered at ten sites throughout the country, with the completion of units at the final site now expected around April 2025.

Significant cost overruns have also occurred. Between July 2023 and January 2024, the estimated programme delivery cost was revised at least four times. Latest cost projections at the time of finalisation of my report indicate a final projected average cost per unit of approximately €442,000, an overall increase of approximately 120% in the unit price.

Combined with the increased number of units, this represents overall programme expenditure of €289 million.

A cost reimbursable contract is being used by the OPW to deliver the programme. Under this, the State bears most of the project risk. The OPW has indicated that an assessment of the feasibility of the rapid-build delivery model for future use, including the use of the cost reimbursable contract, will be carried out on completion of the programme and that any lessons learned will be shared with the Office of Government Procurement. Go raibh maith ag an Leas-Chathaoirleach.