Results 3,281-3,300 of 10,778 for speaker:Patrick O'Donovan

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Patrick O'Donovan: In general, commemorations are managed and operated by the Department of the Taoiseach. As the Deputy knows, the OPW is an agency that supports the Department of the Taoiseach. In many cases, we do much of the back-of-house work or donkey work for the commemorations. We do all the heavy lifting and get none of the recognition, for want of a better way of putting it. Most of the...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Patrick O'Donovan: I thank the Deputy. He is absolutely right. We have an ambitious programme for Rosslare Europort. The Deputy is also right that this is not an insignificant investment that we are about to embark on. It involves the OPW, Irish Rail, Wexford County Council, the local community, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, the Revenue Commissioners and a host of local agencies. The...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Patrick O'Donovan: The short answer is that it is not set in stone. It is up to every Department to identify how it will manage it. It is then up to us when asked how we will support it. We already support not only our own staff to work from home but we have also supported other Departments in this regard. There will be fundamental questions on office accommodation in this city. If we are going to have...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Patrick O'Donovan: The Deputy has answered his own question in a way. The main issue we have is planning-related. These are major schemes so when we anticipate, as we do, we plan on the basis of a forecast that things will move along smoothly and, naturally enough, we will build into our capital plan a sufficient amount to allow for that. For instance, the profile for 2019 to 2021 combined Crossmolina,...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Patrick O'Donovan: There are.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Patrick O'Donovan: There were other schemes. There are a load of schemes in the station that cannot get on the train because, unfortunately, the judicial review process has a knock-on consequence. There is a finite and limited number of staff who can work on all these schemes, whether they are in the engineering or environmental elements of them. We do not have people sitting around doing nothing. All our...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Patrick O'Donovan: No.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Patrick O'Donovan: Some of these schemes that are stuck are much bigger than the ones coming on behind them. Even though some of the schemes coming on behind are smaller, that does not mean they require any less environmental consideration, any less engineering and any less attention from the OPW or local authorities. It does not mean that just because they are-----

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Patrick O'Donovan: It is not a capacity issue.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Patrick O'Donovan: It is because the towns are bigger. Enniscorthy is a much bigger town than some of the towns that are coming on behind it. It means that the contract we will be giving out for Enniscorthy is a lot bigger than that for some of the towns coming on behind it, but the resources available to us are the same. The number of people we have available to us for environmental impact assessments is...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Patrick O'Donovan: No, it is not a capacity issue.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Patrick O'Donovan: Does the Deputy know of the concept of near and far away?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Patrick O'Donovan: Enniscorthy is a huge town. It will require a large amount of capital. I will give another analogy. Rathkeale is a small town that does not require the same amount capital to fix it. However, the same number of people are required to do the environmental impact assessment for a small town as for a big town. We have set aside a significant amount of capital for a big town. That means...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Patrick O'Donovan: He is also anticipating that we will have good news on some of these schemes and that we will actually be able to start them. We do not know what might come out of the courts, but we have to have a sufficient amount to be able to start. We believe we have a sufficient amount to be able to start these schemes.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Patrick O'Donovan: No, he is not wrong.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Patrick O'Donovan: Is that not exactly what I just said?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Patrick O'Donovan: On his profile-----

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Patrick O'Donovan: On the profile, we have a sufficient amount to carry us over, notwithstanding the fact that we are bogged down in court with an awful lot of the very big ones.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Patrick O'Donovan: I have advocated the solution and I hope the Deputy will support it.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2022
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (2 Feb 2022)

Patrick O'Donovan: We need a legislative remedy.