Results 5,021-5,040 of 10,581 for speaker:Patrick O'Donovan

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: I welcome the representatives of the Department. In 2009, when this whole project started, Mr. Griffin's Department estimated that the cost was €18 million over 18 months. In 2013, the cost rose to €31 million, and then, in 2015, it rose to €38 million. Can Mr. Griffin tell me the actual cost of this project to date?

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: Consider the figures outlined by the Department for the period 2009 to 2013. I presume the 2009 figure was arrived at during the period 2005 to 2010, when this system was being designed. How did the Department get the 2009 estimate so wrong, considering the figure that was actually forecast in 2013? How could the Department's forecast have been so wrong given that it spent the previous...

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: Surely that should have been known. What was going on?

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: I am somewhat lost here. How could the postcode system have been developed, over five years from 2005 to 2010, without the basic information and without having sorted the GeoDirectory issue from the start? How did the Department arrive at an estimated cost without knowing the basic details on the locations of the houses in the country?

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: It seems the Department arrived at a cost without having agreed with GeoDirectory as to how much it would require for its database. Is that fair?

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: On that point, the Department arrived at a cost without including the public service databases so it went to the Government with a cost for a national postcode system that would have required, as a matter of basic necessity, that level of information.

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: How could the Department have been developing a postcode system at the time given that it was being changed from a locality-based system to an address-based system in 2012? How could the Department have been developing that kind of project without the databases that were required and, at the same time, arriving at a sum for the Government that was €20 million less than what it was in 2015?

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: I ask the question because there was a large differential over the period in question. In the same vein, there have been significant procurement issues with the project since 2006 and procurement rules seem to have gone out the window. I presume Mr. Griffin accepts the findings of the Comptroller and Auditor General on procurement.

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: There are a number of issues.

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: Will Mr. Griffin elaborate on the potential conflicts of interest involving people on the project board?

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: What company?

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: Right.

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: That is fine.

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: I presume Mr. Griffin accepts what the Comptroller and Auditor General said in this regard. Is it not the case that the European Commission also stated that the Irish authorities were requested to adopt measures to avoid similar errors in future and to inform the Commission of those measures?

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: In that case, everything was not hunky-dory.

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: The Office of Government Procurement also has requirements in respect of contracts awarded without a competitive process where the value exceeds €25,000. In this case, seven of the consultancy contracts met criteria for inclusion in the Department’s statements for 2008, 2013 and 2014 but only two of them were included. Why?

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: It must be borne in mind that the issue with the European Commission, which Mr. Griffin stated was sorted out subsequently, arose prior to some of these issues, yet the Department had seven issues with the Office of Government Procurement and only notified it of two of them.

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: I know what I am talking about because I can see it here. Why did the Department not report that?

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: We will deal with them individually because the Comptroller and Auditor General outlined them. Consultant A was a retired public servant. For which Department or agency did he work?

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: At what level of the organisation was this individual employed?