Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Costello is missing the point entirely. The risk has been wholly costed in this and it is being borne by the taxpayer. If this came in at the average price of a hospital, I would say it was fair enough. A hospital is to be built and we would have agreed a price that was approximately how much it cost to build hospitals, so the risk would be with the contractor. The reality is this will be the most expensive hospital built anywhere in the world. Anybody in the country looking to build a house or extension, or who gets in a builder to do any work, can have a fixed-price contract that will put the risk on the contractor.

If they have been quoted by the contractor the highest price ever quoted anywhere in the world to do the work, clearly they are being hoodwinked and taken for fools if they think any of the risk, in a real sense, is with the contractor. I just find it extraordinary that the board maintains we are going to have the most expensive hospital ever built anywhere on Earth but that we are very clever because the risk of the construction costs is with the contractor.

Will the board release the various reports to the committee? I would be very surprised if several of the figures we are discussing were like-for-like comparisons. For example, the board's initial estimate was based on AECOM stating in 2014 that the cost would be €2,500 per square metre. The size of the project is 160,000 sq. m, which gives a total construction cost of €400 million. I was a member of the finance committee when the national lottery was sold for €400 million. The conversation we had was that the €400 million would pay for the national children's hospital because that was the estimated cost. That is where it all started - at a figure of €400 million. If AECOM stated in 2014 that the cost would be €2,500 per square metre for a building 160,000 sq. m in size, that gave a figure of €400 million. The board's representatives have said inflation was factored in and it was. If one factors in inflation at a rate of 3%, the figure moves from €400 million to €460 million. AECOM's estimated price would have given us a total building cost of €460 million in 2018, yet the board states AECOM gave it another report in 2018 that stated the cost was not, in fact, €2,800 per sq. m but €6,000. Somehow, within a short period of four years, the estimated cost per square metre had jumped from €2,800 to €6,000. I do not believe that and fundamentally do not accept that they are like-for-like comparisons. The material, labour and professional services used on a project of this size are not all being sourced in Ireland. They are international commodities. There is no way the cost of bricks and mortar and the amount of money paid to sparkies, chippies and engineers doubled in a four year period. I just do not accept that it did.

There is a second report from Linesight that conveniently states there has been 95% tender price inflation, which fits in quite neatly with the massive overruns we are discussing. Two international benchmarking studies are also referenced, one of which I presume is the Linesight report. Can the board release to the committee AECOM's work in 2014 that started with a figure of €2,500 per sq. m, giving a total estimated cost of €400 million, the 2018 figures - somehow the figure moved from €2,500 per square metre to €6,000 - and the Linesight report that states there was 95% tender price inflation?