Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is what I am trying to get at, namely, whether the expertise and the capacity is there to test technically, as much as from an accounting perspective. I do not believe it is enough to just allocate funding to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage or to the Department of Transport and then fail to have an oversight mechanism for the State to ensure that those Departments will be able to deliver the projects on the ground. The Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform needs to support Departments to deliver these projects through centralised expertise in project delivery, not by trying to wash its hands of it or to stand back from it.

The national investment office in the Department should be equipped to be a centre of excellence for the delivery of large capital projects that would be a resource for other Departments. My question is really about the Minister and the Department's capacity as the ultimate overseer on behalf of the State to technically and expertly probe the management of the different projects without having to resort to firms like KPMG, Deloitte, PwC and other private consulting firms. That is what I am trying to get at. Is the expertise there to do that?

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