Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

I introduce this Bill in Private Members' time, further to it having been published in December 2018 by my colleague, Deputy Calleary, who had responsibility for this issue in our party. The developments of recent weeks regarding the national children's hospital overrun and the mismanagement of that project by the Government only serve to highlight the need for many improvements to be made in the way in which capital development projects are administered and delivered in this State. It is against that background that Fianna Fáil saw fit to use its time to reintroduce this Bill and to ask the Government to take on board the recommendations contained therein.

The Bill acknowledges the Comptroller and Auditor General's role, as currently constituted, to investigate, analyse and scrutinise capital development programmes once they are completed, to make recommendations thereafter and to be available for questioning to various all-party committees of this House. It is an independent office which has done great work in that regard. It has contributed in no small way to legislation that has ensued as a result of its intricate scrutiny of various programmes.

However, the Government is now employing the offices of a company in the private sector to carry out an investigation of the processes that brought us to a situation where a very poor and porous contract contributed to the State carrying the can for such overruns as became apparent last August and on which the Government only acted in December. Had this legislation already been enacted, it would have allowed the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General and the expertise therein the opportunity to intervene at a much earlier period, if and when expenditure ceilings associated with national development programmes and capital projects were breached. In the case of the children's hospital project, for example, that would have saved the State up to €500,000 in consultancy fees.

Notwithstanding the lessons that we can learn immediately, the Government sought to pre-empt the report's findings when it made various suggestions, following today's Cabinet meeting, about how contracts should not be divided into two stages, as they were in this instance. The Government also made reference to some weight being attached to the previous performance of low-ball bidders and so forth. However, all of this is coming after the event. The legislation that was put before the House previously by my colleague would have catered for the analysis that is now costing the State €500,000.

It is incumbent on the Government and all parties to accept the recommendations contained within the legislation. I am joined this evening by the Chairmen of the joint committee on finance and the Committee of Public Accounts who, in their capacity as members of my party, will support the recommendations. They will also add their voice of reason and experience in the context of recent analyses, investigations and scrutiny by their respective committees and the assistance they received from the intricate and inquisitive work of the Comptroller and Auditor General's office. They will add their voices, on behalf of their respective committees, to those calling for the alteration of the primary legislation to allow the Comptroller and Auditor General to act on our behalf and provide independent assistance and oversight, funded by the taxpayer. The value of that office is acknowledged by the taxpayer and is evidenced by the office's great track record.

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