Results 7,921-7,940 of 20,057 for speaker:Brian Stanley

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)

Brian Stanley: I also ask the OPW to address what it is doing to join up the dots. I do not want to be hard on the witnesses over this but we are moving into a new space.

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)

Brian Stanley: There is a biodiversity crisis. There is a cost involved. The environmental cost is the biggest cost. These are important habitats and important carbon sinks. It is important that we preserve them. I would give the OPW ten out of ten for all the good work that has been done there. I do not want to just focus on that. I acknowledge that these sites are kept spectacularly. That is the...

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)

Brian Stanley: However, we need to bear in mind that the contract stipulates nothing about a health emergency.

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)

Brian Stanley: When are the civil works due to start on the Mountmellick flood relief scheme?

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)

Brian Stanley: I have a couple of quick questions 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)

Brian Stanley: Why?

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)

Brian Stanley: I understand that what was originally planned could have led to putting another location in the town at risk.

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)

Brian Stanley: If it is due to commence in July 2025, what is the approximate duration of that construction? Is it years or months?

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)

Brian Stanley: There is an urgency because the town is a flat surface - as flat as a pool table, unfortunately. It is at the foot of the Slieve Bloom Mountains. The council has done good work each year. I ask Mr Casey to keep in contact with the council and keep all the channels open in terms of the Pound river, the Owenass and all the other tributaries there. It is a fine balance regarding what can...

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)

Brian Stanley: Given the length of time and inflation-----

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)

Brian Stanley: However, there are new works because of the redesign.

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)

Brian Stanley: Mr. Casey might come back to me with an update and a briefing note on 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)

Brian Stanley: We had a conversation about buying and renting offices. The site at Mountrath Road, Portlaoise was bought for €1 million. It started off in the 2000s, we are now going into the third decade and we are still within the same situation where the best part of €1 million a year is being spent on renting offices in various places. Some of them are over pubs and in different...

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)

Brian Stanley: Of course, it needs it. It is renting places such as Grattan House opposite Portlaoise Prison and Kilminchy.

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)

Brian Stanley: That was the argument for locating Departments there. As a public representative for the area and as Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, I am looking at this site that I drive past twice a day coming here and going home on the orbital route and there it is lying empty with bushes growing up around it. Meanwhile we are paying nearly €1 million a year renting various office...

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)

Brian Stanley: For temporary location.

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)

Brian Stanley: I understand that, but you said it would not be a good use of money to press a button to spend money automatically, whereas we have spent money over the years on renting and leasing. It is not satisfactory that a site could be bought and just left standing there with no use made of it in the intervening nearly 20 years now. Can Mr. Buckley see where I am coming from?

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)

Brian Stanley: This comes up at local level regularly. I ask the OPW to come back with some definite information. As for that site, the OPW would want to use it or lose it. It will have to do something. It is not satisfactory that it is just left there vacant like that. I ask that the OPW come back within the next couple of weeks with a report on what exactly is happening with the site and whether 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)

Brian Stanley: Could the OPW come back to the committee with a full answer on 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)

Brian Stanley: Thank you, Mr. Buckley. I thank the committee and the staff of the OPW and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform for the work involved in today's meeting. I also thank the Comptroller and Auditor General and his staff for attending and assisting. Is it agreed that the clerk seek any follow-up information and that we carry out any actions arising from the meeting? Agreed. I...