Richard O'Donoghue urges ministers to be accountable
Richard O'Donoghue addressed the Dáil, calling for ministers and departments to be directly accountable for delivery on infrastructure and public spending. He criticised perceived waste of funds, challenged project costs at Iskairn, raised a 45-year delay on a County Limerick wastewater upgrade, and cited management failings at UHL.
He urged the minister to assert control over departmental staff and processes, saying ministers must be accountable for delivery in the same way businesspeople are accountable for payments like the Roth and VAT. He said departments can no longer be allowed to tell ministers "this is how we do things here."
He singled out Iskairn for not delivering value for money, saying he compared business plans across Europe and found projects delivered elsewhere for half the price. He described that mismatch as waste of funds and called for scrutiny of contracts and costs.
He recalled a promise made 45 years ago that a wastewater treatment plant in County Limerick would be updated and criticised the continued delay and disappointment. He challenged the minister to visit Limerick sites and address long-standing local infrastructure failures.
He described earlier concerns about management at UHL and said it took five years to change management after he first raised issues, asking how many lives were lost because of that delay. He used the example to underline the human cost of poor management and slow departmental action.
He called for a watch body over every penny spent and for departments to face consequences when they make mistakes - including demotion rather than promotion. He argued for infrastructure investment across towns and villages, warning against concentrating resources only in cities and urging delivery on buses, rail and water for regional growth.
Demand for departmental accountability
He urged the minister to assert control over departmental staff and processes, saying ministers must be accountable for delivery in the same way businesspeople are accountable for payments like the Roth and VAT. He said departments can no longer be allowed to tell ministers "this is how we do things here."
Criticism of project delivery and Iskairn
He singled out Iskairn for not delivering value for money, saying he compared business plans across Europe and found projects delivered elsewhere for half the price. He described that mismatch as waste of funds and called for scrutiny of contracts and costs.
County Limerick wastewater concerns
He recalled a promise made 45 years ago that a wastewater treatment plant in County Limerick would be updated and criticised the continued delay and disappointment. He challenged the minister to visit Limerick sites and address long-standing local infrastructure failures.
Health service management at UHL
He described earlier concerns about management at UHL and said it took five years to change management after he first raised issues, asking how many lives were lost because of that delay. He used the example to underline the human cost of poor management and slow departmental action.
Call for oversight and consequences
He called for a watch body over every penny spent and for departments to face consequences when they make mistakes - including demotion rather than promotion. He argued for infrastructure investment across towns and villages, warning against concentrating resources only in cities and urging delivery on buses, rail and water for regional growth.
We publish thousands of recordings to make Irish politics transparent and resistant to manipulation. Spotted an error? Report it — together we are building a reliable archive of Irish politics.
Other speeches
Tego samego dnia All speeches from this day →
Sharon Keogan
Sharon Keogan criticises NGO funding and calls for transparency
Paul Murphy
Paul Murphy criticises €50m Gaeltacht plan, raises Airbnb alarm
Carol Nolan
Carol Nolan warns of rising knife crime and policing gaps
Danny Healy-Rae
Danny Healy-Rae warns of exposed coastal policing and drug risk
Carol Nolan
Carol Nolan Delivers Brief Thank-You Remarks
Mary Lou McDonald
WHAT'S YOUR MESSAGE TO U.S PRESIDENT? Deputy Mary Lou McDonald- speech from 5 Mar 2025
Transcript
Minister, I wish you well in your new role, but I want you to do something different. Minister Vaxmorgen is there as well, and others. I wish you well in your role, but I am asking you to do one thing. As business people, and as someone on your bench, there are business people. I want you to make your department accountable. And by saying that, I want to make you accountable for delivery. Very simple. I am in business all my life. I am self-employed. If I make a mistake, I am accountable. Come the end of the month, if the Roth is not paid online, I am accountable. If the VAT payments are not made, I am accountable. But when ministers go into their position departments, they are often told, I am the department here, you are welcome minister, but this is how we do things here. That has to change now. I want you to stand up to your department and tell them, I am in charge. And you are going to do things and you are going to deliver for this country. And it is not going to be the way you have been doing things for years. You look at Iskairn and the delivery, what they are delivering for the money that they are getting. It is not value for money. How do I know this? Because I look at a business plan across Europe and I watch other international companies delivering projects for half the price of what Iskairn are doing. That is not accountability. That is waste of funds. I look at Iskairn and County Limerick. Fianna Fáil promised 45 years ago now that the wastewater treatment plant would be updated. He had a councillor there that had actually done this on his election that the wastewater treatment would be delivered in Limerick. And I said, you are right Minister, I did say this to you before, but you have not been listening. But you laughed about it there, to the Minister alongside you, this has been brought up before. This is 45 years of disappointment from your government. Now you are new to the job, so stand up and be counted. Get your department to be accountable. You look at HSE in Limerick, my first delivery here in the door was that the management was wrong in UHL. The management changed five years later. How many lives were lost because of bad management? But it took you five years to correct it and now try and rebuild. That is accountability. That is what I am talking about. So people sniggering and laughing and chuckling because of a majority in a Dáil is not acceptable. And I will hold you to account in this Dáil chamber and outside. But I will also be respectful to you when you deliver. And the delivery here has to be with departments and waste of funds. Statistics show that there is an urban and rural divide when it comes to infrastructure. So that discriminates against any young person that wants to grow up and live in the area that they are living in. For it to grow. For infrastructure to be put in like buses. Rail network. Basic infrastructure so towns and villages can be rebuilt, regrow and be repurposed. But if you starve infrastructure around this country, they can't grow. But you want to push everything into the city and the cities are bursting at the seams. But now you go back to the county and say we want water to come to Dublin. There is a 400 million year projection to bring the water to Dublin. I talked to Ishgairn outside here and they said you must come up and see one of our plants here in Dublin. I said will you not come down and look at one in Limerick. The LDA was set up and it is to deal with 15 minutes from Limerick City. That takes out two thirds of county Limerick. From infrastructure. Every town and village needs to have infrastructure. Your departments need to be held accountable. If they make a mistake, demote them, not promote them. Don't put them to another side and say listen Ed, you are okay, we will shove you over here. The same business model that revenue uses in this country lets you use it now in your own departments. If you lose money, get out and you are made accountable. You will never get into a position like that again where you can get funding at your fingertips and lose it. We want infrastructure delivered. We want to make sure there is accountability within the departments and a watch body over every penny that is spent. Like every business person, like every worker in this country that is paying for this here doll today. That is what we want.