Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I do not accept the benchmarking used. Having looked through it in some detail, I think all sorts of costs have been left out. I do not accept the rationale for the benchmarking that has been used, according to which the cost of €2,500 per square metre four years ago now stands at €5,500 per square metre. The only explanation the witnesses seem to have given is that it somehow has become twice as expensive to build in Dublin. However, the site cost has not gone up because the State owned the site. Bricks have not become twice as expensive in three years and labour wages have not increased by 300% in the past four years. I do not accept this increase. When this project is finished, the cost per bed to the State will be twice the cost of the most expensive hospital ever built anywhere in the world. How is it conceivable that the board is managing a project in which the Irish people will have to pay twice as much per bed as the most expensive hospital built anywhere in the world?

My second question on that relates to accountability. If Mr. Costello was asked by a client to build a high-quality hotel that had to be cost-effective in terms of the capital used and he informed his client two years into the project that on the basis that inflation was high and he had underestimated the amount of bricks, wires, windows, beds and pipes needed, the client would have to pay twice as much for the new hotel as the most expensive hotel built anywhere in the world, he would be fired, his company would be taken off the contract and numerous court cases would be taken to find out what happened. I am trying to understand how we will end up spending twice as much per bed as the most expensive hospital ever built. How many of those involved in this project have lost their jobs to date and how many contracts, whether for quantity surveyors, mechanical and electrical works, building or site clearance, have been cancelled due to these cost escalations?