Results 221-240 of 1,040,592 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Ciarán Cuffe OR speaker:Hildegarde Naughton OR speaker:John Brady OR speaker:Louise O'Reilly) in 'Committee meetings'
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: It is certainly an awful of responsibility to give to one person. Mr. Conlon says the OPW has now lowered the limits to €200,000. The same person could still sign a check for €199,000 for another, similar project and that would not be a problem. Are there other oversight mechanisms that have been put in place as well? I am sure Mr. Conlon has met the Minister of State with...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: When did Mr. Conlon become aware of the cost of this particular project?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: Mr. Conlon had no knowledge of it?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: What other grades would have had knowledge of it by that stage? It did not go all the way to the chairman but would it have gone above the grade of principal officer?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: That is quite something. It is an awful lot of responsibility. I do not want to personalise it to any one individual but this principal officer grade, what training did they have in terms of financial management or anything like that? What would be their training and is it mandatory? Let me phrase it in a different way. Is it a requirement currently, or does Mr. Conlon think it should be...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: What has Mr. Conlon done to ensure that? We would all expect the people charged with the responsibility of spending taxpayers' money would have regard to that. They clearly did not, which is why we are here. What would be Mr. Conlon's level of expectation? Has he checked the qualifications of staff? It has been reduced down to a threshold of €200,000. That is still a phenomenal...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: If they have not received the training, are they told that they cannot be responsible for managing large sums?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: It is not a brilliant ad for it, is it? In terms of the order of magnitude costing, it was a hell of a magnitude, was it not? The order of magnitude costing was carried out by this individual at the grade of principal officer or equivalent and at no stage was any more senior person notified about that, am I right?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: This individual obviously felt empowered by senior managers to act. I do not want to personalise it to an individual, but whoever the person was at the level of principal officer felt very comfortable in signing off a project of this size without any recourse to senior managers? As regards making sure that will not happen again, the OPW has put some limit in place. It is still a hefty...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: So the Minister of State was content when Mr. Conlon met with him that the actions he was taking were sufficient. He was not asked to undertake any additional actions.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: With regard to the role of the quantity surveyor, my colleague asked some questions in this regard, but I am a wee bit confused. Who pays the QS's wages? Are they paid by Sensori?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: Okay, so the QS works for the OPW on contract. The QS is not an employee of the OPW directly. It is a contract.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: Does the OPW have any QSs on staff?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: Now I am confused. The OPW has QSs on staff but it also contracts in QSs.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: What are the QSs who are staff doing while the contractors are in doing the work?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: Does the OPW need additional QS staff, perhaps?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: Mr. Conlon might call it flexibility. There might be other-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: Thank you, Chair. The order of magnitude costing that was done did not contain within it the €11,000 that was needed to ensure the bike shed could be safe during the winter. Why was a kind of bike shed for all seasons not built, or how did the OPW end up getting surprised or stung with a bill for €11,000 at the end? Surely the specification would have been to build a bike...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: So the contract was not to create a bike shed that was fit for purpose, albeit massively expensive. It was to create one that was not and then had to be adjusted at the end. I am just wondering. This seems like a very good deal for the contractor at the end. Mr. Conlon was at pains to point out how detailed the plan was and the order of magnitude costing and all that stuff that went along...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)
Louise O'Reilly: As I said, a very good deal for the contractor, it looks like.