Results 101-120 of 28,162 for speaker:Catherine Murphy

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (22 Oct 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Okay, but you might just check that out. Does the OPW own the site beside Military Road, Walter Scott House? Do you know the site on the corner? It used to be where the compound for cars and so on was.

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (22 Oct 2024)

Catherine Murphy: If you are coming down Military Road towards St. John's Road, on the right-hand side, just beyond Walter Scott House.

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (22 Oct 2024)

Catherine Murphy: There is obviously potential for expansion there, rather than having facilities dotted all over the place. You might come back to me with that other information when you have it. As regards the national children's science museum, going back to 2008, I understand the operating income was likely to be trading income of 50%, philanthropy of 11% and government support of 39%. Is that ratio...

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (22 Oct 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Yes, but it still will-----

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (22 Oct 2024)

Catherine Murphy: May I stop you there? The operating side will not be for the OPW. My understanding is that it builds the core and then the museum does the fit-out and runs it. Is your understanding that the museum would require to fund the cost of running it, or is there intended to be a subvention from the Government on that?

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (22 Oct 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Deputy, your time is up.

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (22 Oct 2024)

Catherine Murphy: We are moving to Deputy Ó Cathasaigh.

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (22 Oct 2024)

Catherine Murphy: The back of the restaurant might have been a better location.

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (22 Oct 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Is this relevant to the OPW?

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (22 Oct 2024)

Catherine Murphy: We will go for a second round of five minutes each.

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (22 Oct 2024)

Catherine Murphy: I understand. I am referring to the one before that, which was in 2022. It was not on open sale at that stage and it was offered for sale to the OPW in advance of it subsequently going on the open market with a closed bid process.

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (22 Oct 2024)

Catherine Murphy: The concern was that there could be a hostile owner, and essentially this is what has subsequently transpired. Looking at the history of it in terms of it being a strategic purchase, would that have changed the valuation on it?

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (22 Oct 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Obviously, the OPW must look at valuations. We are acutely aware of value for money. Would the valuation have been different if it was regarded as a strategic purchase as opposed to land that was zoned for agriculture or for amenity?

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (22 Oct 2024)

Catherine Murphy: I will make one final point on this. It is not clear that the OPW knows what it owns there either, in terms of another access in. Money was spent servicing the area into the farmyard. It is not clear that the OPW has done a huge amount of work in looking at alternatives. I will leave it at that. People are losing faith that the OPW is really serious about finding a solution here.

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (22 Oct 2024)

Catherine Murphy: We will move on to Deputy Ó Cathasaigh.

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (22 Oct 2024)

Catherine Murphy: A lot of what we talked about earlier, and this is typical of the public accounts committee, is money that has already been spent.

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (22 Oct 2024)

Catherine Murphy: We are in a rare position where some money has been spent, but the bulk of it has not. We are in that rare position where a mistake has not been made that we are back here talking about in five years' time. It does not seem that is the approach being taken here, given the legal advice, how the legal advice was followed, how the OPW is on the hook and that there is no sponsoring Department....

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (22 Oct 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Mr. Conlon may be back here, but like others, I will not be back after the election. This is one I have pursued constantly. I have been told there was no extra cost for car parking. I think the reply might have been Jesuitical in that it was not associated with Scott House but it was associated with one of the other units not accommodated there and which was previously accommodated-----

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (22 Oct 2024)

Catherine Murphy: That is fine. I turn to Deputy McAuliffe's point about the bike shed. Like everyone else, I echo that is something that comes up routinely. In my area it comes up in the context of wasting that amount of money on a bike shed while the ball was dropped so badly on something of such importance as Castletown House. I have raised this on the past two occasions the OPW has been in. Is it...

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2023
Vote 13 - Office of Public Works (22 Oct 2024)

Catherine Murphy: I understand that but there is no point in building a white elephant or building something for tens of millions of euro and then to discover that the people who are insisting that this be built do not have the wherewithal to put that kind of money into fitting it out. I would have thought that kind of clarity, the cost and the longevity of running it, given that this is a charity, would have...