Results 2,381-2,400 of 10,569 for speaker:Patrick O'Donovan

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Feb 2023)

Patrick O'Donovan: I can come back to the Deputy in writing. In general, however, we work on the basis that we try to get the maximum number of schemes that are most likely to go through the planning process done in the shortest period. We routinely check to ensure that if anything can be condensed by way of timeframe, we do it. I can come back to the Deputy specifically with a schedule in respect of each of...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Feb 2023)

Patrick O'Donovan: I can get the Deputy the detail on those, broken down in tabular form. Similar to the schemes in Donegal, most of those will be at the following stages: preliminary; data collection; public consultation; live planning; or if they are being done under the Arterial Drainage Act or by An Bord Pleanála, before the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. I can think of two in Cork that...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Feb 2023)

Patrick O'Donovan: Some of the 58 will actually come out this year. Six schemes are at construction stage, including those in Athlone and Templemore, which will be completed this year. Three schemes are at detailed design stage. These include King’s Island in Limerick, Glashaboy in Glanmire, County Cork. Five others are at stage 2. These include the scheme in Enniscorthy, which, unfortunately, has...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Feb 2023)

Patrick O'Donovan: If the detail in that regard could be provided, it would be helpful. In the context of the OPW's estate management portfolio, the Spending Review 2022 reached conclusions similar to previous reviews and states: "... if the State requires office accommodation for long-term use, it may get better value for money [for] building or purchasing office accommodation instead of leasing." The...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Feb 2023)

Patrick O'Donovan: This depends on circumstances. I refer, for example, to the locations where the OPW is asked to find office accommodation or circumstances where, for argument’s sake, a tribunal is established, a change of Department occurs or an agency needs to expand. Sometimes, we just do not have a choice but to take out a lease. It is not our preferred option. Our preferred option is to...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Feb 2023)

Patrick O'Donovan: We have an ongoing process of disposal or reuse of vacant properties for different State bodies and agencies, including local authorities and Departments. The current vacant building stock includes 31 former Garda stations, on most of which we are in discussion with local authorities or local groups or we have a plan to dispose of them by way of public auction, regrettably, where local...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Feb 2023)

Patrick O'Donovan: The Office of Public Works commissions public buildings on the request of public bodies and on the request of Accounting Officers. In this case, the OPW commissioned the building of the Scott House at Military Road on the specification and request of An Garda Síochána at a particular point in time with the emphasis being placed on relocating all of the personnel on time and on...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Feb 2023)

Patrick O'Donovan: What I would acknowledge is that we built the building that we were asked to build for the number of people who we were asked to be put into it and it took a number of years to build that building. An Garda Síochána expanded its resources, which it did because the Government ploughed funding into the Garda to increase the number of gardaí, while a Garda station and a Garda...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Feb 2023)

Patrick O'Donovan: We actually built in a contingency on top of what we were asked to build for Military Road. We built in 20%. The Deputy is suggesting that with some sort of crystal ball we should have built a building with perhaps seven or eight empty floors on top of it in the hope that at some stage in the future we might be able to occupy it. If we built a building that was 200% or 300% over the...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Feb 2023)

Patrick O'Donovan: I do not have that in front of me so I cannot confirm that.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Feb 2023)

Patrick O'Donovan: They cannot confirm it because we do not have it. Whatever might or might not be in a newspaper, the Office of Public Works, as the commissioners of public works, takes its requests from the Accounting Officers, in this case An Garda Síochána.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Feb 2023)

Patrick O'Donovan: Not all of them were to be moved to Military Road. Some of them were to be moved elsewhere.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Feb 2023)

Patrick O'Donovan: Yes.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Feb 2023)

Patrick O'Donovan: That is what the Deputy is suggesting.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Feb 2023)

Patrick O'Donovan: He is suggesting we should build something-----

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Feb 2023)

Patrick O'Donovan: How many would the Deputy have built for at the time?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Feb 2023)

Patrick O'Donovan: This is not rocket science either. We built what we were asked to build. I have a question for the Deputy. If he were asked to build what we were asked to build, how many additional floors that were not needed at the time would he have put on it?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Feb 2023)

Patrick O'Donovan: It was not all to the one location.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Feb 2023)

Patrick O'Donovan: It was not all to the one location.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (22 Feb 2023)

Patrick O'Donovan: Let me get this straight. As the body which provides the State's public works accommodation, the OPW engages with the Accounting Officer who outlines the demand. The Deputy is suggesting going off and say we know better, we will not do whatever it is the Garda is looking for and, even though not all the people in this building are going to move to the new building, we will assume they all...