Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy must bear in mind that an examinership is a court process designed to help the company to recover. It is not a liquidation whereby everyone goes in and seizes sites. Under the examinership, work continued on the Maynooth site. It was the one site that the examiner sought to continue to progress as other efforts were made to deliver the project. Clearly, the best outcome would have been that the examinership would have succeeded and that the contractor would have been able to complete the work. That was clearly the alternative. What we now have to do, as I outlined in my few comments, is some very detailed work to certify exactly what has been completed and what remains to be done. That involves detailed survey work, detailed specifications, detailed design and detailed drawings, which we simply could not have done during an ongoing examinership.

We took steps to ensure that the State’s interests were protected throughout the period. Given the failure of the examinership, we are working to secure the best outcome.

As I indicated earlier, the contractor will go on site in March 2019 and the scheduled completion date is June 2020. It is the intention that this will be adhered to. That will take the co-operation of everyone involved.

We will seek to accommodate the schools in any way we can, whether it is through temporary accommodation or other assistance which may be necessary. This is an important project. I assure the Deputy that I will take a close personal interest in it. I have arranged that my Department will keep me updated of the critical path which has been set out in order that, if there is any slippage, we can consider other steps to address it. I am confident in the team put in place. I hope we can deliver. I fully understand the Deputy’s concerns, which are shared by the Acting Chairman.

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