Results 621-640 of 9,744 for speaker:Patrick O'Donovan

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: Absolutely.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: Absolutely. There is no doubt it is a fantastic career. It is a challenging environment, however. There are some skills, particularly in stonemasonry, in the private and public sector. Only a handful of people in this country are able to work on the Corinthian and Ionic capitals on top of columns in Georgian buildings. Even transferring that knowledge ó ghlúin go glúin is...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: It is undervalued, to be honest.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: It is not on the one I read out anyway.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: If it is a Garda station it is, unless there is a lease, which is highly unlikely, or the Garda Commissioner wants to retain it for Garda purposes, and I will check that for the Cathaoirleach, which has happened in some parts of the country.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: We can come back to the Cathaoirleach on that.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: Without landing the organisation in it, the answer is "Yes". We are open to everything. We have Reginald's Tower-----

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: Absolutely. It is in our interests to get as many people through these buildings as possible. Whatever it is we engage with local communities on, whether it relates to Christmas markets, educational programmes or whatever, we are certainly open to anything that puts a greater number of people through buildings for educational purposes, once the integrity of the building is not in any way...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: In Waterford.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: Mount Congreve is not owned by the OPW but it is in a relationship with it. Mount Congreve is run by a trust. We support it and do a lot of work on it.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: If I had my way, and it is above my paygrade, many buildings in public ownership that add significant historical value to the country as a whole should be in the proper clean ownership of the OPW. I am not talking about Mount Congreve in isolation or any such site. Over the past 200-odd years, we have maintained the historical value of our building network. Some organisations, whether they...

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: It is. It is magnificent.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: I was asked last night, for instance, why the home of Charles Stewart Parnell is not in the charge of the OPW. I said that it was a good question and if the person asking it found out the answer to come back to me.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: We are not going to see it close down. I am sure, as Chairman of the finance committee, he will not allow it to be closed down.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: Yes.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: Is this for 2024?

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: At the end of last year, we purchased a building for use by a Department not too far away from here. I presume-----

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: One relates to the purchase of a property in Sligo town. There are also ones in Mullingar and Drogheda so these are all in rural locations.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: Yes, expansion.

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Estimates for Public Services 2024
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (Revised) (31 Jan 2024)

Patrick O'Donovan: We will do that.