Results 20,561-20,580 of 26,053 for speaker:Kieran O'Donnell

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Land Swap Arrangement in the Provision of Affordable Houses
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (30 Jan 2014)

Kieran O'Donnell: Looking back at it again, would the Department and the OPW have done anything differently? I know that hindsight provides 20/20 vision but the bottom line is that we are talking here about €31.5 million of taxpayers' money. The market was at its peak and one would question the risk assessment carried out in the context of the timeframe. If confronted with the same situation now,...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Land Swap Arrangement in the Provision of Affordable Houses
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (30 Jan 2014)

Kieran O'Donnell: The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, the housing agency, the OPW and the Department of Justice and Equality were all involved.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Land Swap Arrangement in the Provision of Affordable Houses
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (30 Jan 2014)

Kieran O'Donnell: There was also the Department of the Taoiseach and the Chief State Solicitor's office.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Land Swap Arrangement in the Provision of Affordable Houses
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (30 Jan 2014)

Kieran O'Donnell: Who fell down on the job?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Land Swap Arrangement in the Provision of Affordable Houses
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (30 Jan 2014)

Kieran O'Donnell: When the contracts were being negotiated, it should have been implicit that the developers were accepting that the balance of moneys they were owed, outside of the sale of the houses themselves, should have been related to the valuation of the site. Is that a fair comment? The developer gained in the sense that he would be getting a site with vacant possession which increased its value. He...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Land Swap Arrangement in the Provision of Affordable Houses
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (30 Jan 2014)

Kieran O'Donnell: Ultimately, it is the taxpayer who ended up picking up the tab. Looking back, does Ms McGrath think things could have been done differently?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Land Swap Arrangement in the Provision of Affordable Houses
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (30 Jan 2014)

Kieran O'Donnell: Was it the case that turf wars between the various agencies got in the way ---

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Land Swap Arrangement in the Provision of Affordable Houses
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (30 Jan 2014)

Kieran O'Donnell: Bertie Ahern was Taoiseach at the time.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Land Swap Arrangement in the Provision of Affordable Houses
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (30 Jan 2014)

Kieran O'Donnell: The property was occupied by An Garda Síochána. This was not a vacant site. The Department was extremely lucky that NAMA was formed. If NAMA had not been formed, it would have had money going out of the State purse. That €31.5 million could have been used for day-to-day services within relevant Departments but it has now gone into NAMA. What due diligence was done at the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Land Swap Arrangement in the Provision of Affordable Houses
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (30 Jan 2014)

Kieran O'Donnell: That was at the peak and when we saw the water starting to come out of the burst balloon. July 2006 was effectively the peak in terms of valuations. Someone got peak valuation for affordable housing and got a site adjacent to an existing site with the Garda in situ. It was not a vacant possession site. The question I am asking Ms Tallon - is nothing personal; this is what we do here - is...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Land Swap Arrangement in the Provision of Affordable Houses
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (30 Jan 2014)

Kieran O'Donnell: How did this particular site come up on the radar? Why was this site pursued in June and July 2006?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Land Swap Arrangement in the Provision of Affordable Houses
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (30 Jan 2014)

Kieran O'Donnell: Who advised the Department that this would actually happen?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Land Swap Arrangement in the Provision of Affordable Houses
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (30 Jan 2014)

Kieran O'Donnell: The then Minister and officials from the Department are not present today. By when was the Department advised directly by the Department that vacant possession would be achieved? Was this other site on Kevin Street? Where was the new Garda station to be built?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Land Swap Arrangement in the Provision of Affordable Houses
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (30 Jan 2014)

Kieran O'Donnell: Harcourt Street?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Land Swap Arrangement in the Provision of Affordable Houses
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (30 Jan 2014)

Kieran O'Donnell: Once the contract was signed by the Department with the developer, the genie was out of the bottle. Did anyone look to see if the dominos were lined up? Was the Department under pressure to push ahead with this site and get it over the line? I do not fully understand why such pressure was applied at the peak of the market to push for this particular site.

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Land Swap Arrangement in the Provision of Affordable Houses
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (30 Jan 2014)

Kieran O'Donnell: Whatever way one looks at that site, the timeframe on getting vacant possession was extremely tight. The Department was hoping to get vacant possession by 2008. Am I correct?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Land Swap Arrangement in the Provision of Affordable Houses
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (30 Jan 2014)

Kieran O'Donnell: We are talking about a year. There were problems with the site. I refer to the terms of the sale contract, or the agreement with the developers. Who were the developers?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Land Swap Arrangement in the Provision of Affordable Houses
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (30 Jan 2014)

Kieran O'Donnell: Why was a contract not negotiated that would have included vacant possession or, if vacant possession was not possible, a lease agreement, as the Department sought to achieve in 2010? Why was that not examined? Did the OPW regard the timeframe to get vacant possession as optimistic?

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Land Swap Arrangement in the Provision of Affordable Houses
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (30 Jan 2014)

Kieran O'Donnell: I thank the Chairman for the clarification. In all of these discussions, the devil is in the detail. For people who are not aware of Part V, it was introduced by the Department for social and affordable housing. Any developer building a development was required to provide 10% social housing and 10% affordable housing. Developers complied with the Part V obligations by weighting the social...

Public Accounts Committee: 2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 6 - Land Swap Arrangement in the Provision of Affordable Houses
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (30 Jan 2014)

Kieran O'Donnell: Was there any social housing in the 250 units?