I propose to take Questions Nos. 118 and 135 together. I thank the Deputy for raising this issue and for his continued interest in alleviating the problems in the Glanmire area. I am advised that the Glashaboy river flood relief scheme is being progressed by Cork City Council. The OPW, in partnership with Cork City Council, is engaging proactively to progress the flood relief scheme for Glanmire. The scheme was confirmed in January 2021 by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform under the Arterial Drainage A…

From the point of view of the OPW, which is the funding authority, this is being prioritised. In any engagement I have had with the CEO of Cork City Council, this has been to the fore in our discussions. I am due to visit Cork again shortly. I recognise that this is not an insignificant scheme. A total of 103 properties are being defended, which are a mixture of personal and business. It will take up to 24 months to finish the construction but in the period since the previous tendering process stopped and this one …

Nobody could have anticipated the inflationary environment in which the OPW and the council found ourselves. While it was a huge disappointment that the contractor withdrew from the contract, was it a surprise given that construction inflation was probably running of the order of 20% or 30% or whatever percentage it was at the time? It has eased considerably and at least we are now in a stable environment. This is not an issue about money. Some people are trying to portray that politically but it is not. If we did …

First, I welcome the opportunity to speak on behalf of the Office of Public Works. In the first instance, I am delighted to be reappointed as Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works for another while. The climate change we witness in the communities we must visit year in, year out in this country is not in any way political. It does not discriminate on the basis of where these people live, the background they have or the way they vote. It is having a huge impact all over Ireland. If any…

I will answer the first point the Senator raised. I am going to have the same issue with Senator Kyne. I do not disagree with Senator Buttimer. It puts us in an invidious position because these are not the policy areas for which we have responsibility. That said, I would include Shannon in Senator Buttimer's enunciation-----

On the wider point regarding Ministers coming before the House, while I do not want to be presumptuous, if there was a revision of the scheduling of ministerial engagements with Seanad Éireann after Christmas, that would be very helpful. As Senator Kyne will know from previous experience, in many instances we are being asked to give responses, through no fault of our own and no fault of the Minister responsible, on policy issues or difficulties with which we are not familiar. Maybe a schedule could be prepared so t…

As I mentioned to my good colleague from Cork, I flew from Cork Airport recently and found the experience to be really good. It is a fabulous airport which I have used on many occasions, as have an awful lot of people in the wider Munster area. It is not just a Cork thing. In saying that, I mentioned Shannon Airport, which is very close to me although the closest airport to my home is Farranfore Airport in Kerry. It also plays a very important role in the development of tourism in the south west and in enhancing co…

There are enough jobs being given out here this morning-----

I thank Senator Kyne for raising such an important issue. The statistics he raises are quite shocking. They are also quite enlightening and make us all sit up and pay attention to the scale of the problem the Senator has raised. On behalf of the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, I fully acknowledge the vital work undertaken by Galway Rape Crisis Centre, by all rape crisis centres and by anybody who works with victims of sexual violence. The service that the centre provides to victi…

I will refer the Senator's comments to both Ministers concerned. Without being in any way disrespectful to the issues he and others have raised here, I wish to raise the more fundamental issue of how he as a Senator is able to engage with the line Minister who has responsibility for policy. I do not disagree with anything the Senator has raised here but I am sure there are other moving parts within the Department that I am not aware of in this context. A suggestion I have made to Senator Buttimer already this morni…

I thank Deputy Connolly for raising this question. The Office of Public Works, OPW, has a significant and diverse office accommodation portfolio distributed throughout the country, comprising 890,488 sq. m at the end of 2021 and including a range of differing types of office provision, from heritage buildings to brand new grade A office accommodation. The issue, which Deputy Connolly has raised with me before, of whether to buy, build or lease properties is a complex one and is subject to various factors, including…

As I said to the Deputy, on the previous occasion when we discussed this matter, I did not, nor does the Office of Public Works, disagree with her. We agree, in fact, but there are circumstances where we will have urgent needs. For example, if a tribunal is to be established and there is a requirement in the here and now for office accommodation, the OPW will not have the benefit of going through a rigorous planning process, dealing with all objections, judicial reviews, public procurement, the public spending code…

The Deputy is correct in that this will change even more in the next six, 12, or 18 months where we have a new blended working environment. We will now have situations, which we all have had already through the OPW-led campaign on energy consumption in public buildings, including this very building, where on some days we may have 10% to 15% occupancy. We will need to have very difficult conversations across our whole estate on whether everybody who works for the Civil Service, for instance, can continue to have the…

I presume the Deputy, as a great proponent of the public service, is not suggesting we would do anything else other than what Deputy Connolly said a while ago and that the Deputy is in fact on our side. I presume from his political and philosophical background that he is a great-----

-----proponent of the Office Public Works. I will say, however, that in respect of disused Garda stations, the Office Public Works has written, rung and engaged with local authorities throughout the country on umpteen occasions to take these buildings off us. In many cases they are perfectly suitable for either local authority accommodation itself or for housing accommodation. Some of them have been taken and we have some very proactive local authorities, such as Leitrim County Council and Roscommon County Council,…

I thank Deputy Dillon for raising this issue again. In October 2020, the Office of Public Works, OPW, submitted the documentation for confirmation for the Crossmolina flood relief scheme to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, under the Arterial Drainage Act 1945, as amended. As part of this process, the Department sought and the OPW provided it with supplementary information in July 2021. The Department advised that a further public consultation would be appropriate, to include this supplementary infor…

Regarding the process here, it is designed under the Arterial Drainage Act 1945, as amended, which is old but powerful and useful legislation to get infrastructure built on our rivers. In the OPW and in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, our parent Department, we have had some discussion around the assessment and consenting process that could potentially be used. I know this is the cause of frustration and people often wonder why the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform is doing the assessment …

The OPW and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, to a greater extent, are in an invidious position here because while they are the consenting and assessment authority, they are also the paymasters. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform has made ample money available to us in the OPW to carry out the works, so that is not an issue in this context. The issue is that if this endeavour were to fall flat on its face by way of a judicial review, then the whole process would have to start again. The d…

I propose to take Questions Nos. 93 and 107 together. The OPW's involvement with An Blascaod Mór goes back to 1988 with Ionad an Bhlascaoid being developed with assistance from the locally based voluntary group, Fondúireacht an Bhlascaoid. The centre was first officially opened to the public in April 1994. The centre plays a critical role in the cultural life of Dún Chaoin and is an important facility for the local community. It is also an important heritage visitor experience, operated by the OPW, which celebrates…

As for the seals on the beach, which Deputy Griffin and I saw with the OPW when we were there, the OPW has a plan to improve the signage and to erect appropriate signage on the island ahead of the 2023 visitor season on foot of the requests made on the day we were there. The OPW has been in dialogue with the National Parks and Wildlife Service to make sure that this is done properly. As well as that, there will be a co-ordinated level of consultation and dialogue with the operators of the ferries, as the Deputy sug…