Clerk of Dáil strongly defends purchase of Oireachtas printer

The Clerk of the Dáil is seeking to recoup some of the €2m spent on the purchase and installation of an Oireachtas printer from the company that supplied the machine.

Clerk of Dáil strongly defends purchase of Oireachtas printer

The Clerk of the Dáil is seeking to recoup some of the €2m spent on the purchase and installation of an Oireachtas printer from the company that supplied the machine.

Peter Finnegan strongly defended the purchase of the machine claiming it still makes “financial sense” because the two existing printers cost €65,000 to repair and maintain.

Mr Finnegan told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that the "the first and fundamental mistake" was the absence of an architect on the project who, he said, would have spotted the issue with head height at the very start. Extensive restructuring work had to be carried out to ensure the machine could fit in the room.

He said he had received legal advice stating that Komori, the supplier of the printer, did not breach its contract and had provided drawings and details of the head height required.

But he added:

I’m actually kind of exploring other avenues in terms of speaking to our legal advisers to see is there a possibility that we would set out in writing what happened, concerns, how we feel the procurement or the provision of the machine was dealt with and would they be prepared on an ex-gratia basis to make some contribution or gesture to the Houses of the Oireachtas in respect of this machine. And that’s something that I’m pursuing.

Fine Gael TD Kate O'Connell dismissed this option and suggested that the Houses of the Oireachtas instead try to hammer out a deal to reduce the cost of annual servicing.

The PAC was told that the cost of raising the ceiling of the room to accommodate the printing press is €267,000 excluding VAT, and not the €229,000 outlined in November. This is because electrical costs are €126,000 and not the €94,000 previously outlined, while additional external civil and structural engineering fees of €11,408 have also been added.

When VAT is included, the total building costs associated with the printer reach €314,000. The OPW also carried out separate work on the room while builders were on-site bringing the total figure to over €2m.

But Mr Finnegan said the height of the room "never came up" when the business case was being examined and put this and other mistakes down to "human error".

He admitted that because no architect had been involved in the project at an early stage "there was actually no sense at all that height was going to be an issue" and it was only discovered when the OPW was contacted about the installation.

PAC chair Sean Fleming said that the committee had been told back in July that the printer and associated costs were at €1.169m.

"The actual figure that you've given us today for completing all the work done and the OPW work is €2.02m. That is an increase of 73%."

But Mr Finnegan said there would always have been a cost associated with accommodating the printer.

"We are not an organisation that has the luxury of installing equipment on a greenfield site. We are not Google down in the docks. We are an organisation that functions in Dublin 2 in very cramped conditions and invariably costs arise as a result of that."

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