Results 3,801-3,820 of 11,187 for speaker:Colm Burke

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: National Broadband Plan (15 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: 81. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if NBI is continuing to engage with a company (details supplied) to provide broadband to premises in cases in which the company's fibre broadband infrastructure is bordering an amber area under the national broadband plan and given that the company has sufficient capacity to accommodate more premises on this line; and...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: National Broadband Plan (15 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: This question relates to the same issue I have just raised. Can the Minister provide information where Eir is prepared to engage on properties along the borderline areas? We certainly have not come across it in the Cork area. Every time we get on to Eir about such a connection, we are told "No". Does the Minister have other information in that regard?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works
Chapter 8 - Contract payments in respect of Convention Centre Dublin (15 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: I thank the witnesses for attending and dealing with the queries raised. I wish to continue on the flood relief issue. My understanding was ten flood relief capital projects were ongoing in 2021. There was accumulated expenditure of €173 million, but my understanding is those ten projects will now cost around €213 million. Where are we with those ten projects? Are they...

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works
Chapter 8 - Contract payments in respect of Convention Centre Dublin (15 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: These are projects that were up and running in 2021. Are they now complete and is there a final outturn for the total cost?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works
Chapter 8 - Contract payments in respect of Convention Centre Dublin (15 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: Yes, I ask Mr. Buckley to get back to me. I will move on. I refer to the timescale of the projects. Two specific projects in my constituency are the Glashaboy flood relief scheme and the Blackpool flood relief scheme. The Glashaboy scheme went out for tender before the whole project was abandoned and we are now back to square one. What is the timeframe now? Glashaboy was affected by...

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works
Chapter 8 - Contract payments in respect of Convention Centre Dublin (15 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: I know all of that.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works
Chapter 8 - Contract payments in respect of Convention Centre Dublin (15 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: We are ten years from the time this major event occurred and we still do not have a contract in place. What is the timescale now for having a contract in place?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works
Chapter 8 - Contract payments in respect of Convention Centre Dublin (15 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: Was it not the case that the OPW prepared the tender documents previously, sent them out and tenders were submitted to take on the contracts?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works
Chapter 8 - Contract payments in respect of Convention Centre Dublin (15 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: It then turned out that the people who were to do the contract withdrew from it. Therefore, all the documentation was already prepared. Why not invite in tenders within the following two or four weeks? Why does it take another eight months to again invite tenders?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works
Chapter 8 - Contract payments in respect of Convention Centre Dublin (15 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: I am aware of that. If the OPW decides to invite tenders this week or within the next ten days, what is the timescale for all the documentation to come in, that is, submissions received from those who are interested in carrying out the work, and the acceptance time period?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works
Chapter 8 - Contract payments in respect of Convention Centre Dublin (15 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: The big complaint I have from contractors is the time it takes from when the tenders come in to when the office accepts and decides on who should be awarded the contract. What timescale are we normally talking about?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works
Chapter 8 - Contract payments in respect of Convention Centre Dublin (15 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: That is not what is happening in contracts. My understanding is that with many contracts - I have come across them in relation to schools and other Departments - there is a huge delay from the time the submissions are received to the time the decision is taken. We had inflation in the intervening period and the contractors could not do the project at the price they submitted.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works
Chapter 8 - Contract payments in respect of Convention Centre Dublin (15 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: I am aware of that.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works
Chapter 8 - Contract payments in respect of Convention Centre Dublin (15 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: I am saying that there is a huge delay.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works
Chapter 8 - Contract payments in respect of Convention Centre Dublin (15 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: Across Government Departments, there is a huge delay from the time contracts are submitted to acceptance by the Department, whether it is the OPW, the Department of Education or the Department of Health. I am just saying we are now in a different timescale because of inflation and there is a need to put in place contracts at an earlier time than what the current process seems to be.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works
Chapter 8 - Contract payments in respect of Convention Centre Dublin (15 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: I will just pick up the issue of specialist subcontractors. In the past five days, I was approached by a subcontractor who was cheaper than other subcontractors for a particular project. The OPW instructed the main contractor not to accept this subcontractor even though it had done work previously on OPW projects. It was cheaper and cost-effective, yet the main contractor was instructed...

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works
Chapter 8 - Contract payments in respect of Convention Centre Dublin (15 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: I will do that. This subcontractor is absolutely gobsmacked that it is-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works
Chapter 8 - Contract payments in respect of Convention Centre Dublin (15 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: No. I will give Mr. O’Connor the details on it.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works
Chapter 8 - Contract payments in respect of Convention Centre Dublin (15 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: What is the timescale for agreeing subcontractors?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works
Chapter 8 - Contract payments in respect of Convention Centre Dublin (15 Dec 2022)

Colm Burke: Let us compare it with what is happening in the private sector. We seem to have projects that will take the OPW six or seven years and the private sector will get them done in three years. Should we not be looking at how the private is able to deliver in a far shorter timeframe?