Results 3,521-3,540 of 10,573 for speaker:Patrick O'Donovan

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (30 Mar 2021)

Patrick O'Donovan: The Deputy is conflating hydropower with a flood-relief scheme. I was not at the conference. Is the Deputy suggesting taking out the ESB generating station on the Lee? Is that the Deputy's suggestion to eliminating the flood risk in Cork city? Is he suggesting removing the ESB power-generating station on the Lee as a contributor to the flood relief scheme of Cork?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (30 Mar 2021)

Patrick O'Donovan: I do not understand how-----

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (30 Mar 2021)

Patrick O'Donovan: Before doing that, I might advise the Deputy that Cork City Council and Met Éireann actually do that. During the last severe weather event in Cork, an intervention by Cork City Council, the Office of Public Works and the ESB prevented an event similar to the one that happened in 2009. Perhaps the Deputy might like to do what I do, which is to talk to the business people and the people...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (30 Mar 2021)

Patrick O'Donovan: And many traders in Cork city centre-----

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (30 Mar 2021)

Patrick O'Donovan: Many traders in Cork city centre support Cork City Council's scheme.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (30 Mar 2021)

Patrick O'Donovan: The total cost is €20.5 million. The capital costs will be approximately €18 million. The total number of properties that will be protected is 293, of which 206 are residential and 87 commercial.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (30 Mar 2021)

Patrick O'Donovan: I am delighted to hear that.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (30 Mar 2021)

Patrick O'Donovan: The total cost is €20.5 million. The initial cost was only marginally lower than that. The Deputy must remember that this scheme has been subjected to delays and we have to allow for building cost inflation during that time. We hope that this scheme will not be delayed further. As the Deputy knows, this is one of the oldest parts of Cork city. It is an urban village. The people...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (30 Mar 2021)

Patrick O'Donovan: I do not have such a costing because this is the scheme for which we have planning permission. Deputy Barry knows better than I do that, having been granted planning permission for one scheme, we cannot put a hypothetical alternative scheme through the planning process or apportion costs to a scheme for which we do not have permission, particularly a scheme designed some seven years ago. If...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (30 Mar 2021)

Patrick O'Donovan: I thank Deputy Mairéad Farrell. She is correct with regard to west Galway. There was an unprecedented event in Clifden in the Deputy's constituency during the summer. I take this opportunity to acknowledge, as I have done in the Dáil, the outdoor staff of Galway County Council, the sister local authority in Clifden, for the work they did. Galway City Council is at an advanced...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (30 Mar 2021)

Patrick O'Donovan: I will take the last part first. Galway is included as part of our catchment flood risk assessment and management, CFRAM, study. I could get into a bigger discussion with the Deputy later about coastal erosion. Through the OPW, I am committed to holding a webinar with all Oireachtas Members regarding where it stands on coastal and river protection for flooding. I want to hear from...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (30 Mar 2021)

Patrick O'Donovan: I presume the Deputy is referring to A3, the purchase of plant and machinery. The OPW is doing a lot of the work on flood risk management using direct labour. Some of the allocation is in plant and machinery that we replace and purchase for ourselves. One such example is Templemore, County Tipperary. Clonlara in County Clare will be a direct labour scheme. To be quite honest, as Minister...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (30 Mar 2021)

Patrick O'Donovan: It is worth noting that when Brexit kicked off, the Departments of Foreign affairs and the Taoiseach asked the OPW to take on responsibility for putting in place infrastructure at Dublin Port, Rosslare Europort and, specifically and to a lesser degree, Dublin Airport. It did so within a very short time and under budget. It handed back the infrastructure to the relevant authorities. They...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (30 Mar 2021)

Patrick O'Donovan: At the moment, 76 buildings are non-operational or vacant.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (30 Mar 2021)

Patrick O'Donovan: The majority are Garda stations that were closed during the 2012-13 period.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (30 Mar 2021)

Patrick O'Donovan: We are doing so. Since I assumed my role, that is one of the actions we have been taking. Our local authorities are not exactly jumping through hoops to take them on, though. We have been at pains to get local authorities to take over some of these buildings even though they are in towns and villages that have local authority waiting lists. Some of the buildings will require conservation...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (30 Mar 2021)

Patrick O'Donovan: It depends on what the Deputy means by "lying fallow". We own the Phoenix Park, and that is lying fallow.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (30 Mar 2021)

Patrick O'Donovan: No. The lands that we own are park lands. If the Department of Justice, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine or the Department of Education owns lands, they are not owned by the OPW. Most of the lands that are in the custody of the OPW, such as monuments and the lands around them, are actually owned by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. We...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (30 Mar 2021)

Patrick O'Donovan: The Office of Public Works does not own those buildings. Those buildings are owned by the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. The Office of Public Works, because it does not own buildings as I explained earlier, manages, supports and operate the buildings once they come into the charge of the Minister. We manage the operation, conservation and the restoration...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (30 Mar 2021)

Patrick O'Donovan: First of all, the Morell flood management scheme, as the Deputy quite rightly says, was at a standstill because of a judicial review but construction got going again and continued during Covid. It is a direct labour scheme by the Office of Public Works. It is something, as I said earlier, I would like to see more of. It is a substantial scheme costing €10 million. It will protect...