Results 1,621-1,640 of 3,336 for speaker:Kate O'Connell

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Kate O'Connell: Mr. O'Brien's expertise is that he is an architect. I have just looked up his profile. His experience is in social housing and urban regeneration. I have an interest in architecture; it is one of the things I read about. We have heard and argued here about the cost difference in building a house compared to a project like the children's hospital. We are not building houses so I throw...

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Kate O'Connell: As an architect with expertise, be it in building houses or otherwise, would it not be obvious to Mr. O'Brien that a two-stage process would be fraught with overruns because of the complexities involved?

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Kate O'Connell: That is what I am getting at.

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Kate O'Connell: I am trying to be helpful. We have had many meetings on this issue and constantly hear from people watching at home. For those people, the question is how we went from a cost of €650 million to €1.73 billion. We want the answer to that. Normal people at home who are building a shed, or whatever, with a budget of €650 have to build the shed for that amount because they...

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Kate O'Connell: Okay.

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Kate O'Connell: Insofar as Mr. O'Brien has expertise, did he have any thoughts at the time that this would be fraught with difficulties?

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Kate O'Connell: That was clearly a failure. We have had the nasty surprise.

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Kate O'Connell: Pardon?

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Kate O'Connell: The construction above ground.

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Kate O'Connell: The basement can be warehoused, as such, and start from the ground up. I get it.

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Kate O'Connell: Would Mr. O'Brien be happy to say this is a good way to go about business in the future? We have lessons to learn but he can leave that aside. I may have misinterpreted Mr. Watt but I understood him to say he would not be up for this type of contract again. Are there varying views? I may be misinterpreting.

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Kate O'Connell: What is Mr. Watt's view?

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Kate O'Connell: I get it.

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Kate O'Connell: Mr. O'Brien has sort of-----

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Kate O'Connell: Mr. O'Brien's comments suggest that he thinks it was the right way to go about it.

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Kate O'Connell: Would Mr. Watt not do it again?

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Kate O'Connell: The issue for people watching at home is that we have come out of a time of austerity during which everybody in Ireland suffered and it is disappointing for members of this committee and the public to have this in front of us and hear references to lessons learned and what will happen in the future. Why would lessons be learned on the job on a project of this scale? Mr. Watt said, in his...

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Kate O'Connell: It absolutely is, and that is why Mr. Watt did not use the term, but that it what he meant.

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Kate O'Connell: That is fine and I am all for incentivising. I just want to make sure I understand.

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Kate O'Connell: It makes sense.