Results 8,261-8,280 of 34,780 for speaker:Seán Fleming

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functions: Office of Public Works (10 Dec 2014)

Seán Fleming: The OPW has mapped areas and I accept it has not created any new flood risk areas. Perhaps it has put down on paper what is considered a 100-year or 1,000-year event. The maps are a good thing. However, they have worked their way into county development plans causing difficulties, correctly so in some areas, for planning applications. The maps have had a far greater impact than people...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functions: Office of Public Works (10 Dec 2014)

Seán Fleming: What about an area that has no planning but has houses and streets that are now deemed to suffer a 100-year event? Banks have adopted a particular view on established houses which are not new dwellings because a county development plan has identified an area as being at risk. The maps have put an incumbrance on a lot of houses.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functions: Office of Public Works (10 Dec 2014)

Seán Fleming: When will the OPW complete compiling its list of 300 areas at greatest risk? Is it 20, 30, 40 or 50 years?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functions: Office of Public Works (10 Dec 2014)

Seán Fleming: Can the OPW supply us a list of applications received from local authorities for funding due to flood that happened last winter? What is the cost? Can Ms McGrath give me an estimate? She said it had cost the OPW over €60 million.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functions: Office of Public Works (10 Dec 2014)

Seán Fleming: It is mentioned in the opening statement that the Government allocated €69.5 million for repairs and remedial works, from which some €19.6 million was allocated to the Office of Public Works. This means that the balance of €50 million was available to local authorities. Am I correct in all of this? Was the €19.6 million allocated to the OPW part of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functions: Office of Public Works (10 Dec 2014)

Seán Fleming: What about the remaining €50 million?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functions: Office of Public Works (10 Dec 2014)

Seán Fleming: I ask Ms McGrath to send the committee a note on how the sum of €69.5 million was distributed because it reads as though the money was within the budget of the OPW. She mentioned the figure of €69.5 million, €19.6 million of which applies to the OPW, but we do not know how the rest is broken down. The OPW is dealing with the flooding issue.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functions: Office of Public Works (10 Dec 2014)

Seán Fleming: It may be in the public domain, but it is not known to me. Of the €19.6 million allocated to the OPW, was €2.7 million paid out?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functions: Office of Public Works (10 Dec 2014)

Seán Fleming: Ms McGrath has said some of the information is on the OPW's website and we saw how €2.7 million was drawn down in a handful of counties, but I have not seen a list of the applications.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functions: Office of Public Works (10 Dec 2014)

Seán Fleming: As I could not find the information easily while we were talking, Ms McGrath might send us a note giving us a breakdown of the figure of €19.6 million, highlighting the allocations to local authorities and drawdowns to date.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functions: Office of Public Works (10 Dec 2014)

Seán Fleming: Perhaps Ms McGrath might circulate the figures for the benefit of the members who are not present. The Government allocated the other €50 million for the repair of damaged public infrastructure and this money is spread over other Departments. We can follow up with the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, but I ask Ms...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functions: Office of Public Works (10 Dec 2014)

Seán Fleming: Are there two schemes for local authorities? Can they apply to the OPW under one scheme and to the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government under another? I am confused because I have asked parliamentary questions about this issue.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functions: Office of Public Works (10 Dec 2014)

Seán Fleming: Does Ms McGrath know how the sum of €50 million was distributed? Who can help us with this because it seems the information is spread over four or five Departments? We need to have an overall picture.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functions: Office of Public Works (10 Dec 2014)

Seán Fleming: If Ms McGrath sends a list of the Departments involved, we will have to follow them separately.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functions: Office of Public Works (10 Dec 2014)

Seán Fleming: At least we will know where to ask once we receive a list of the Departments in question. We have spent most of the meeting talking about flood defences, although they account for only around 25% of the OPW's budget. Most of its budget relates to the estate portfolio management side, for which the figure is €312 million this year and will be €309 million next year, according...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functions: Office of Public Works (10 Dec 2014)

Seán Fleming: It amounts to a financial reduction of 28%, but what was the reduction in floor space in the same period? How does the figure for floor space in 2008 compare to the current figure?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functions: Office of Public Works (10 Dec 2014)

Seán Fleming: In fact, therefore, a significant proportion of the savings stems come from surrendering space rather than through renegotiations. I know that there has been a bit of both. Can we have a note on the savings achieved? How much has been saved through reducing floor space and through rent reductions?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functions: Office of Public Works (10 Dec 2014)

Seán Fleming: Given that over the period in question the number of public sector employees has fallen by over 10% from 320,000 to around 280,000, has there been an equivalent reduction in floor space?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functions: Office of Public Works (10 Dec 2014)

Seán Fleming: I wish to put three or four questions to Ms McGrath who can send the replies through the secretariat rather than going through them here because it might take time to do so. Will Ms McGrath give us a note outlining the percentage breakdown of OPW properties, owned and rented, as compared to 2008? The OPW seems to be letting go of some of its rented properties. The figure must be well over...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Operations and Functions: Office of Public Works (10 Dec 2014)

Seán Fleming: Fantastic.