Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am well familiar the lessons and learnings we have from the national children’s hospital. That is why the evaluation approach for so-called mega projects has changed fundamentally. It has changed in two different areas. The first is the costs that we publish for larger projects include a larger recognition of the cost of the risks and how, if the risks were to materialise, it could impact on what the final cost will be. The best example of that is the way we publicly handled the communication of the decision on the national broadband plan, where we published a range of costs and outlined the possible different factors that would influence those costs. The reality is that no matter how big the client is - in this case, the State – issues can still arise in a tendering process and in the construction of projects that, at times, we are not able to influence. What happened in the past couple of years is the best example of that. We had a wide variety of projects that were being tendered for. Cost-price inflation kicked in in a way that nobody could have anticipated. That, in turn, has impacted on the cost of those projects. I would not be getting any praise from the Oireachtas if I came here and told the committee we cancelled a whole array of projects due to cost-price inflation. The Deputy would not praise me for doing that. Instead, we have had to find ways to manage that cost and, on occasion, support Departments to deliver projects that cost more than the State wants. The specific change that has happened is, first, the publication of a variation of costs and, second, the involvement of outside bodies and experts through the major project evaluation groups to give back to Government and the State views on the costs and assumptions we have about projects.

The Deputy referred to the metro north project. The State went bankrupt for most of the intervening period of the metro north. Thank God, things have been better in recent years. I vividly remember the reason the metro north was suspended and eventually that version of it did not happen. We could not afford to make it happen.

The lesson I learned from that was, one, not to go insolvent and, two, to have public projects that have planning permission so when more money is available, we are able to do them.

The Deputy mentioned Midleton. The Minister of State, Deputy O'Donovan, will be before the committee this afternoon. He will speak to that project more than I can. The Deputy will be aware of the environmental legislation that groups and stakeholders in our country believe is very important, which it is from their point of view, but has led to the delay of projects the Government and local communities want delivered. I am again certain that if the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and I had looked to constrain or change that legislation or diminish people's right to give a view on or object to projects, we would no doubt be accused of undermining the ability of people to give a view on projects they believe will impact on the environment. It is about trying to get that balance right while accepting this is very frustrating to communities that want to see projects delivered.