Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the same topic. In January, the Taoiseach stated no capital project would be delayed or cut as a result of the cost overrun in the children's hospital. Only last Thursday, in the very seat in which the Tánaiste is sitting, the Minister for Finance reiterated this position during Question Time. He stated no project would be cut or delayed as a result of the cost overruns in the children's hospital. In February, a draft capital plan by the HSE was discussed and it was almost ready to be signed off.

However, as a result of the information then given to the HSE on the cost overruns on the national children's hospital project, the capital plan had to be revisited. We are coming up to 1 July and the plan has still not been published. It is not possible for the Government to have it both ways. The Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance cannot state there is no impact on the capital projects which have been announced as a result of the cost overruns. That is because this morning at the Committee of Public Accounts, leaving aside what the interim director general of the HSE, Ms O'Connor, said, the director general who is in the job some six weeks stated the very reason we did not have a capital plan published by the HSE was the direct result and consequences of the cost overruns on the national children's hospital project. The HSE is still in negotiations with the Department of Health to see what impact the overruns will have on capital projects in 2020, 2021 and 2022. We have been trying to get the capital plan published for six months. We are being told that there is no issue when it comes to capital projects and that there are no cuts or delays for budgetary reasons. If that is the case, what has the HSE and the Department of Health been discussing for the past five to six months regarding the capital plan? Why has it not been published? It does not add up. What the Tánaiste is stating is not credible. The overruns either have an impact and we are still trying to figure what it will be, which is why the plan has not been published, or there is politics going on and an attempt to pull the wool over people's eyes. The overruns will either have an impact or they will not. Which is it?

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