Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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84. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the nature of the works currently under way at a facility (details supplied) in County Cork; the value of the contract; the tender arrangements that applied; the date works commenced on site; the expected completion date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3093/14]

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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Castledonovan Castle, while it is a National Monument in private ownership, is in the care of the Office of Public Works (OPW). It is located near Drimoleague in Co. Cork.

The OPW has been engaged in an ongoing scheme of works at this castle for several years. This has been undertaken using the OPW's direct skilled labour force based in Cork and the issue of tendering out the construction work does not therefore arise, except in the case of certain supporting specialist requirements not available within the OPW.

The project commenced in 2001 and has now concluded, apart from a small amount of landscaping works and the provision of an Interpretative panel giving the history of the site.

The project cost, including archaeology, direct labour and all materials in the period 2001 to end 2013 is: €1.6 million approximately. Of this €36,000 plus VAT was expended on externally delivered scaffolding services.

A certain amount of the work was undertaken during the period when the Heritage estate was under the care of the then Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government. This included a detailed and comprehensive archaeological investigation over three successive seasons which had to be done before any of the extensive conservation work could be undertaken onsite. The procurement of this element was, I understand, managed by the DOEHLG in accordance with normal procedures.

Although all the works carried out at Castledonovan were carried out by OPW's direct labour force based at Mallow, Co. Cork, it was also necessary to procure the services of a specialised scaffolding company for the supply for rent and erection of Tube and Fitting Scaffolding. Five companies were invited to tender for the provision of this service in 2010 and the company that submitted the lowest tender was awarded the contract.

This project has been technically very difficult and was hampered in the early stages particularly by the condition of the building which was fragile, structurally unstable and dangerous. Due to the nature of the work involved it was only possible to proceed on a seasonal basis, i.e, carrying out this sensitive restoration work when the weather conditions are generally favourable. Unfortunately the Castledonovan work was adversely affected by relatively poor weather over a number of summer seasons and this was exacerbated by the need, at times, to divert skilled labour resources away to other conservation and urgent maintenance projects ongoing in the region at the time. While the length of time taken to bring the work to completion may seem long, this needs to be viewed in the context of a project which was technically complex and, at times, made more difficult by circumstances.

It is intended to open the Castle to the public this summer and my officials are already in touch with a local community group with a view to maximising the visitor potential to the area from this new visitor destination.