Results 8,781-8,800 of 20,057 for speaker:Brian Stanley

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Brian Stanley: Okay, I thank our witnesses. We will break then resume in ten minutes sharp to continue the meeting.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Brian Stanley: The next speaker is Deputy Colm Burke.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Brian Stanley: On the oversight and control public of spending code the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has, we are in a situation now where we have a fairly large national development plan with many big projects being rolled out. There have been some substantial infrastructural upgrades done over the past number of decades. In that context, I wish to ask about cases where there may be a level...

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Brian Stanley: The head of the CCPC has raised concerns about issues like this, although not necessarily cases like the ones to which I am referring. Mr. Moloney is not aware of what happened in Spain, but does he know how many PPPs the five Spanish companies in question are engaged in?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Brian Stanley: It has been publicly reported. Dragados, which is a part of the ACS Group, was fined €57.1 million, FCC Construccion was fined €40.4 million, Ferrovial Construccion was fined €38.5 million, Acciona Construccion was fined €29.4 million and Obrasco Huarte Lain was fined €21.5 million. The sixth company, Sacyr Construccion, was fined €16.7 million....

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Brian Stanley: The chairperson of the CCPC, Ms Isolde Goggin, has discussed fears about potential rigging of public procurement contracts. She has sought a more sophisticated data system - I will come to the Department's role in a moment - to monitor for potential abuses. I understand that the CCPC is currently examining the waste and motor sectors. She outlined that the CCPC was relying on...

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Brian Stanley: I am not saying that there has been collusion.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Brian Stanley: The context of my questions is that we have many PPPs, we are getting a great deal of infrastructure built and there are sizeable contracts out there. My understanding is that Dragados was partnered with BAM on both of the contracts I mentioned. Is that correct?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Brian Stanley: One of the other companies, FCC Construccion, was fined €40.4 million by the Spanish regulator. It had the contracts for the north runway at Dublin Airport and the widening and retrofitting of the M50. I am just flagging that. Am I correct in saying that there were four bidders for the national children's hospital?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Brian Stanley: Was that in 2016?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Brian Stanley: There or thereabouts. One of the bidders was BAM, Dragados was another and FCC Construccion was a third. It was reported in July that the latter two had been caught colluding in Spain. I am not alleging that there has been collusion in Ireland, but there are substantial opportunities for companies internationally. What I am saying to Mr. Moloney, as the Secretary General of the Department...

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Brian Stanley: It is under the Department's brief.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Brian Stanley: I understand and accept that. The point I am making is that it is something the various arms of the State, including the Oireachtas and the Committee of Public Accounts, need to be alert to. Does Mr. Moloney accept that?

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Brian Stanley: The then chair of the CCPC wrote to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in 2016 making the case for increased funding for a more sophisticated database to track the bidding in PPPs. What happened as a consequence of that? Have any measures been put in place to assist in that regard? The CCPC raised the matter again this year. My concern is that these two things happened within...

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Brian Stanley: I do not expect Mr. Moloney to remember everything but my understanding is that the then chairperson of the CCPC, Ms Goggins, wrote to Mr. Moloney's Department in 2016 making the case for increased funding and a more sophisticated database and tracking system, particularly around public contracts and PPPs. Is Mr. Moloney concerned about the potential in this area and the need to be extra...

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Brian Stanley: It is particularly important and not only for taxpayers as we are also under the umbrella of European competition law. Will Mr. Moloney engage with the chairperson of the CCPC to get an update on where his Department and the CCPC are with regard to this matter and revert to the committee on it? Will he also clarify what happened in 2016 regarding that correspondence, whether his Department...

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Brian Stanley: I will go back to Deputy Verona Murphy who has five minutes.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Brian Stanley: Deputy Colm Burke mentioned capital projects. This is an issue I have raised with Graham Doyle, the Secretary General of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. At the moment, we are in a housing crisis. I am approaching this in a constructive way. I am not making a criticism but it is one of the issues that I fail to understand. We have to mass-produce houses,...

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Brian Stanley: No, this is more complex.

Public Accounts Committee: 2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Reallocation of Voted Funding (20 Oct 2022)

Brian Stanley: It could be done in mixed-tenure developments. The estate I live in is private but there is local authority housing in it. People driving in cannot see the difference. There is no difference. Nobody even knows who is living the local authority housing, although I would know as a former councillor. There is no need for this duplication and this rigmarole, and the extra cost. I am saying...