Office of Public Works Priorities and Progress: Statements Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-19 ============================================================ Kevin Boxer Moran (IND), Longford-Westmeath I thank the Senators for their thoughtful remarks and engagement. I deeply appreciate their support and the insights shared in the House. The work of the OPW is built on collaboration through partnership with other State bodies, communities and colleagues. We all hope we can continue to make this progress. I assure Senators that the OPW remains fully committed to serving the public, protecting our heritage and strengthening our resilience against challenges, such as flooding. We are passionate about what we do and we approach every task with humility and a genuine desire to make a difference. I hear people. I cannot respond to everybody individually. Senator Clifford-Lee knows I have set up a meeting. Senator Rabbitte knows the commitment I have given, as does Senator Fitzpatrick. I could talk about flooding until the cows come home. I know more about it than most. We have discussed some measures today. We have moved from €750,000 to €2 million under the minor works scheme. It is up to the Senators. Each and everyone in the House plays a part. Senators must go to the local authorities and encourage them to get their minor works applications into my Department so I can fund the projects. I brought about these changes to make it easier for local authorities to have access to funding to deliver for the people the Senators represent. We talk about Storm Chandra. Nobody heard about interim measures. Nobody heard about aqua dams. We brought foresight. We experienced ourselves how interim measures worked. We worked in Kerry with various different projects. We brought that work to Storm Chandra, and I delivered. Local authorities are now going to deliver the work in progress before the end of the year. Most of this work does not need planning permission, but if it does, it goes through a Part 8 process over which the local authorities have control. We are very much in that space of delivery. Nobody is more keenly driven by heritage than me. I have driven right across Ireland, from Donegal to Kerry and back. We are hell-bent on delivering on projects. It is not easy to do every project. It is impossible, because the funding is not there. The money that is available to me I wisely choose to use in different locations, geographically spread, so that everybody gets a piece of it. We are not able to do it all, but I assure everyone in the House that I am keenly driven. I was the first Minister of State to allow access to all our OPW sites to children for free. Our sites got 13.5 million visitors last year. That tells you the commitment we have within the OPW to deliver. Some people asked about Garda stations. If we have a Garda station or any other building, we offer it to the local authority first and then all the other agencies. If they take up the offer, they get first priority on the building. Other than that, we work with the Garda and either put the building up for sale or up for auction. I have no control of that until the Garda releases the building to me. We then move on the property. There has been a lot of talk of overspending. I assure everyone here that, in the past 16 or 17 months, we have brought in changes. I am the first one. I will not run. I am the Minister of State. I am the accountable person. I am the person who will stand up and stand over what happens within the OPW. That is my job, as the Minister of State. We had problems in the past. I acknowledged that when I stood up today. I have also acknowledged the changes we have brought about within the OPW. Everything we do now goes through a cost-benefit analysis. My Department and I make sure. My Chairman is very committed, as am I. We work closely with the Minister, Deputy Chambers, on delivering projects for the future of the country. Senators talked about all the lovely gardens. We spoke about the National Botanic Gardens and all those beautiful places. I love them, no more than the Senators. Everyone in Ireland loves them. People come to Ireland to visit these sites. It is extraordinary. Look at Dublin Castle. We talk about the EU Presidency coming. I have seen at first hand the work that is being done in Dublin Castle. It is not just for the EU Presidency but for years to come. The benefit for this country, going forward, will be enormous. I appreciate everybody in the House. I say to everyone that my office is like a clinic on a Wednesday evening. I am probably the most accessible Minister of State you will get. My office is open to anybody. There are people in the House to whom I have never spoken or engaged with. If people want to engage with me, that is fine. Senator McCarthy is looking at me, but I am not referring to him. He asked me a question earlier and said there was a letter on my desk. There is, but I do not think the property in question belongs to the OPW. I think it belongs to Waterways Ireland. I will respond to him in due course. I assure all Senators that if they need or want me, I am here at their beck and call, and my office is always open. I am clearly driven and passionate about the OPW, particularly on the flood side of things. I have to and want to deliver to protect communities. I see at first hand how flooding affects people mentally. It affects houses and businesses, and everybody. It does not just affect those people but also the wider community that is not flooded. When my town of Athlone flooded, the town was not closed down but people said Athlone was flooded so people did not come into town. I know the effect on businesses. I am proud to be a Westmeath man. I will tell the House a story. Twenty-two years ago, I had to be brought home by gardaí one night when we won the Leinster championship. I was leaving a venue in Mullingar. This was very special to the older community in Westmeath. They thought they would never see it but they saw it. Long may it continue. There was great success for Roscommon and us. That is the centre of the universe, and long may it continue. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-19/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:57+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-05-19