Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Tóibín did not want to give too many examples but it is important to keep ramming the examples home. Just over the past three years, there have been several instances which have highlighted concerns regarding the mismanagement and waste of public funds by the Irish Government bodies and agencies. There was a seven-year inquiry into NAMA’s €1.6 billion Project Eagle which resulted in €14.4 million being spent primarily on legal fees and administrative costs. The new X-ray scanner at the National Gallery cost €124,000 and the Arts Council’s failed IT system cost €6.675 million. We had the OPW overpriced bike shed construction, the €7,000 retirement party expenses and the Office of Public Works €1.4 million security hut. Need I say more? We had a debate recently on the need for the Road Safety Authority to have a structural overhaul. The reason for that is because of massive inefficiencies and mismanagement in the agency which is costing the taxpayer money. There is also mismanagement in the HSE. The HSE has faced multiple instances where projects were delayed or went over budget which impacted service delivery. Obviously, there have to be agency nurses but we have seen an over-reliance on agency staff in administration. It is not good economics. It is not very efficient. There has been delayed utilisation of medical equipment worth millions. It remains unused due to infrastructural delays reflecting poor planning and resource management. There have been overruns in public housing projects. Several projects exceeded budgets by millions. Inefficient public transportation investment and funds allocated for transportation projects were under-utilised and mismanaged leading to increased congestion and annoyance to the public. There is a strike today which is affecting my constituency of Dublin Mid West which has left thousands stranded because the buses did not turn up. That was because of dissatisfaction over how the bus service is operating. There were 300 electric buses which could have saved a fortune in fuel left idle because of gross ineptitude and bureaucratic incompetence. School construction projects frequently exceed budgets. I was listening to the “Path to Power” podcast and heard of where schools were going to put in 12 solar panels. That should be much more. Schools should be multi-use facilities so there can be a pre-school on site and rooms which can be used in the evening. I called that integrated public partnership 20 years ago. We are wasting school buildings. We should be feeding that solar panel energy back to the grid rather than adding to our costs.

Also on costs there has been the delayed implementation of the digital government e-services. Then there is the over-expansion of consultancy contracts with the excessive reliance on external consultants leading to inflated costs. The mismanagement of subsidy programmes leading to the unequal distribution of funds and a minimal impact on agricultural development. The big one that came out yesterday was the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council and the climate change body report that said we would get between €8 billion and €26 billion in fines for not investing in areas that can save people money, protect our environment and do our bit on climate change.

It is a no-brainer to put in that investment, but instead we are hoping the EU will go lax and that we will not have to pay those fines. We will have to pay something. In six years' time, are we going to be saying this was another example of gross Government ineptitude? We need to invest in water to provide housing and in housing itself to avoid costing people a lot more in inflated rents.

On the contracts for construction, consistently in this country we have no checks and balances for companies that are considered dodgy and that do shoddy work and end up costing the taxpayer more over a period. BAM, for example, has had massive cost overruns with the children's hospital but it had issues with schools in the past. Why should a company that has been shown not to adhere to best practice then be awarded a contract because it has given the cheapest tender? We know the cheapest is not always the best quality or the best way to spend public money. We should be going down like a hammer on all these contracts to make sure they are delivering proper value for money.

The Wombles preschool in Scoil Mhuire, Airlie Heights, is facing closure because the Government is putting in an autism spectrum disorder, ASD, unit, which is welcome, but the reason the Government is putting it in is that it is not opening the other schools that should be opened. We are talking about 66 childcare places going nowhere else. That is going to cost the State a fortune down the line to try to find alternatives. We need to think smarter.

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