Deputy Stanley said: “The C&AG report draws attention to a number of areas around the spending of public money, including adapting flood risk management to climate change impacts, the delivery of Rapid Build Housing, protecting the State’s investment in the schools estate, exceptional State funding to the Peter McVerry Trust, and the Health Service Executive’s integrated financial management system.
“The report examines the progress made in implementing the 21 adaptation actions set out in the Flood Risk Management Climate Change Sectoral Adaptation Plan published in 2019 and reviews the existing governance structure in the area of climate change adaptation in Ireland. The Office of Public Works (OPW) is the lead organisation for the Plan and monitors progress on implementation of the actions. The C&AG found that while the OPW reports on the implementation of the Plan, there is a lack of clarity and continuity regarding reporting requirements at national level in the area of climate change adaptation.
“The examination also looks at the rapid build programme as part of Government’s response to provide accommodation for beneficiaries of temporary protection. The pilot programme initially set out to deliver 500 units by February 2023 at an estimated cost of €100 million or €200,000 per unit. Delivery of the 500 units was only achieved in early August 2024 – some 17 months later than planned.
“In early 2024, the OPW informed the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) that based on a worst-case scenario, completion of the programme by end 2024 would cost an estimated €300 million — an average cost of €432,000 per unit. DCEDIY’s latest total programme cost projections indicate a final projected average cost per unit of around €442,000 — an increase of around 120 per cent on the original February 2023 estimate.
“A significant factor impacting the cost outturn and delivery timelines was the lack of availability of suitable sites and insufficient provision for the cost of site preparation works. The programme is being delivered using a ‘cost reimbursable’ contract put in place by OPW, whereby the State bears most of the project risk. No credible and long-term use for the modular units has yet been determined.”
Deputy Stanley said: “As Cathaoirleach of the Committee of Public Accounts, I am concerned about protecting the taxpayers’ considerable investment in school buildings and facilities. Just over €7 billion was invested through the Department of Education in the school’s estate in the ten-year period up to the end of 2023. The C&AG found that the State’s capital investment in the provision of some new schools or extensions has not been formally secured due to the absence of effective and appropriate legal agreements with patron bodies. The C&AG previously reported on this exposure in September 2020 and while there has been some effort to improve the protection of the State’s interest, progress has been slow.
“Another matter of concern is the exceptional funding to the Peter McVerry Trust of up to €15 million approved the Government in November 2023. The C&AG found that a number of advances of planned funding were provided to the Trust by the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive (DHRE) between March and September 2023 for which approval was not provided.
“In November 2023, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage approved an advance of €2 million to the Trust. However, the advance actually paid by the DRHE exceeded this by over €3 million. Approval from the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform was not obtained for any of the advance funding provided in 2023. In addition to the exceptional funding, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage estimates that by the end of September 2024, it will have incurred over €1.5 million in professional fees arising from the issues with the Trust.”
Deputy Stanley said: “The C&AG also examines the Health Service Executive (HSE) rollout of an integrated financial management system (IFMS) to replace multiple legacy finance and procurement systems across the HSE and publicly-funded health agencies. The HSE’s 2015 ICT business plan underpinning the IFMS envisaged that the rollout of the IFMS, on a phased basis, would commence in 2017 with a view to being fully rolled out in the HSE by 2020.
“The projected cost at that time (excluding VAT) was €82 million for capital and once-off costs and €50 million in recurrent funding for licencing and systems’ maintenance costs over the 11-year period 2016 to 2026. Additional funding of €40 million was allocated in 2024 for the accelerated roll out of the IFMS, bringing the total budget to €172 million.
“A number of delays have occurred and the rollout plan has been revised on a number of occasions. Following a lessons learned exercise, and the additional funding of €40 million, the HSE now plans to roll out the system across the rest of the HSE in two phases, for completion in 2025.
“The C&AG also reports on vote accounting and budget management, drawing attention to non-compliant procurement totalling approximately €139 million across all votes in 2023, and highlighting the treatment of certain advances, totalling €132.7 million, made to the Office of Public Works to fund development at Rosslare Europort.”
Deputy Stanley concluded: “All the matters referred to by the C&AG, especially the chapters highlighted, will be examined in detail by the PAC. The scheduling of these meetings on the annual report will be discussed at our meeting on Thursday, 3 October.”
PAC is a standing committee of Dáil Éireann which focuses on ensuring public services are run efficiently and achieve value for money. Further information on the role and remit of the Committee can be found here.
