Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To go back to the earlier question posed by the Deputy in relation to my responsibilities, for the Office of Public Works, OPW, which is a capital-led body, the changes to the public spending code that have been announced could not come fast enough. I am sure that if I asked the school buildings unit in the Department of Education or other bodies, they would agree, purely on the basis of the time that it was taking to go through each of the steps that had to be adhered to under the code in order to deliver capital projects.

In tandem with changing the spending code itself, there has also been a major change to the NDP delivery board. The Minister is now chairing that board and while not all Secretaries General will be members of the board at all times, they will come in and go out as needed. The board also has external resources from people outside in the real world, that is, the world outside of politics. They will cast an eye over things as well, in the context of the enhanced importance of the delivery board. From a holistic point of view, the changes to the spending code and to the NDP delivery board will improve the situation.

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