Results 721-740 of 1,039,467 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Tom Kitt OR speaker:Seán Haughey OR speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett OR speaker:Jennifer Whitmore OR speaker:Sorca Clarke) in 'Committee meetings'

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It should have been members. In any committee members go first and it does not have to be discussed.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I thank the representatives of the OPW for their contribution to this discussion. They are obviously aware that the bike shed scandal has brought the Houses of the Oireachtas, the OPW and the public services into disrepute. People cannot understand how a bike shed could cost the same as a house. I cannot think of any good explanation for why a bike shed would cost more than a house. I am...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I do not see why the OPW would not have put the shed there. Security concerns have been cited but I do not see what the additional security burden would have been. There is still a security gate between that area and Leinster House itself. Do the witnesses know how much less that would have cost? Would they still be of the view that it is the option we should have gone with? Who made the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I have to say, as somebody who walks from Agriculture House into Leinster House every single day, I am baffled as to why that would not be a perfectly suitable location.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Can Mr. Conlon give us even a rough idea of the difference in cost between that original suggestion and the current location?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Maybe I was. The original suggestion has recently been described in the media as a more cost-effective proposal. Do we have any idea how much more cost-effective it was?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It would be far lower.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: When that option was refused, and what turned out to be a far more expensive option was decided upon, was there not a requirement for the costing of the new location to come back to the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission to say the option chosen has turned out to be much more expensive and to ask if the commission was sure it wanted to go ahead with this? That strikes me as something...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: What indication was the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission given? Once it said it was rejecting the OPW's proposal, which would have been a fraction of the cost, as Mr. Conlon seems to indicate, and going for something else, was the commission even told that it would likely be much more expensive?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It was told it would be far more costly.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: That was the end of it - it was a case of just go and do it, regardless of cost.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Right.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It should have been. Lastly, we have heard today in a different context that the board for developing the national children's hospital accused the main contractor of trying to extract every single cent it possibly could from the State. Is there an element of that in all of this, given the extraordinary costs? All the people doing the work, whether they are this medium-term group or outside...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: My very last question is this. At some point, before it was approved, somebody saw an estimate of what it was going to cost and that it was going to be an extraordinary amount of money. That would have been after July 2023 and before July 2024. Somewhere in between, somebody was given an estimate which detailed all these costs and the total cost. That one individual signed off on that....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Following on from my earlier questions and linking together two issues that have come up, namely, the bike shed and the security issue, as I said earlier, I am familiar with the area. The witnesses stated that the place the OPW initially proposed for the bike shed would have cost significantly less than the one the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission opted for in the knowledge it would cost...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Maybe it is a question more for the commission, but I cannot see what the issue was, given people have to go past a security hut and gate, which they can get past only with passes and which many people do go past with bicycles every day. Once they have got past the gate, they can go to exactly the place the OPW was proposing to put a different bike shed, which would have been much cheaper....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: They expressed a preference for the Merrion Square side but that was not linked to security.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: For the record, they are both on the Merrion Square side, as against the Kildare Street side. I know the witnesses are just told what they are saying but it does not really add up to me. That is the point, particularly if there was going to be a very significant additional cost. Serious questions therefore must be asked about why the more expensive option was opted for, because I cannot see...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with Office of Public Works (25 Sep 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I will comment briefly on that issue. I am not over the detail of all of this, but the idea of an Irish children’s science museum in and of itself seems to be a good one. The Iveagh Gardens, however, is a very important amenity and we must look at the potential impact on it, as well as the cost issues. Many questions have been raised with us and I believe thousands of submissions...