With each passing week, substantial sums of money are being lost to the Exchequer as a result of an ongoing dispute at the Ordnance Survey Office. A further £170,000 in taxpayers' money has been spent on hardship payments to the four workers at the centre of the dispute. The longer this dispute goes on, the more will be spent. In total, the failure of management at Ordnance Survey Ireland to reinstate four workers, has cost the state in the region of £250,000. The remaining staff there, who yesterday staged strike action, have warned that unless the four workers are reinstated they will take further action.
Such additional and prolonged action will not only cost the Exchequer more money, it will result in difficulties for those who depend on the work carried out by this agency. At a time when the demand for housing has never been so high, a reduced service by the Ordnance Survey Office will be damaging to the agencies and industries involved in housing provision such as planning, legal and construction services.
At the heart of the problems obtaining at this office has been an internal report at the OSI which alleged that the four staff working in the retail section were engaged in financial and accountancy irregularities. On foot of the report, the four staff concerned were suspended, and over three years later they have yet to be reinstated. Although the staff in question have been vindicated by the Circuit Criminal Court, the management at the OSI has insisted that there is currently an internal investigation taking place into the matter and, therefore, it is not in a position to lift the suspension of the workers concerned.
I cannot comprehend why this dispute is being allowed to continue and why the workers are still under suspension. The time has come for the Minister to intervene. He should examine the precise rationale for the continued suspension of the staff while an investigation takes place. In addition, he should examine the statements which were made at the individual sittings of the Circuit Criminal Court which cleared the staff of any wrongdoing. The Minister will be aware that a Circuit Court judge described the management system at Ordnance Survey Ireland as a "shambles". In addition, the internal audit which precipitated the suspension of the workers also found the management and administration to be inefficient, to say the least.
It appears from the evidence in the public domain, that the four workers who have been cleared of any wrongdoing by the courts are paying the cost for ineffective administrative and management procedures at the office. Indeed, one judge said that if one of the cases he dealt with had been of a civil nature, he would not have hesitated to throw the claim out, award full costs and seek areas where punitive damages could be awarded.
At this stage, it is in the public interest and in the interests of the legal system, the construction industry and other agencies which depend on Ordnance Survey Ireland for the Minister to intervene as a matter of urgency to avert any further action by the 200 staff at the Ordnance Survey Office and that the four workers, who have been under suspension for four years now and who have been cleared of any wrongdoing, are allowed to return to their place of work.
