Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and the officials. With regard to PwC, the company the Minister will use to produce this report, albeit at this late stage, am I correct in saying PwC are also the on-site compliance managers for BAM on this project?

Is the Government represented on the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board? If so, who is its representative? Can the Minister outline for us briefly, maybe rounded up to the nearest ten or 20, if that might suit, the number of meetings or communications that the Minister had with this person or how he or she communicated with the Minister? The Minister will appreciate there is a certain amount of incredulity that the person with whom the buck should stop appears to have been in the dark for a long time about a project that is incurring a significant overrun and did not find out until August that this is happening. At what stage was the Minister kept apprised? Was there constant communication? Was there any at all? We are aware, from the chairman of the board, that he met the Minister but only at social events. There would not have been formal meetings between the Minister and the chairman, but maybe there were between the Minister and whoever was the Government representative.

On page 2 of the document that we were given in advance of this meeting, the bottom table on comparison of total increased costs under 2.1, increase in quantities, includes a figure of €115 million. The Minister might tell us the exact date on which he was notified of this increase. Likewise, under 2.3, omissions in stage 1 design-bill of quantities, there is a figure of €20 million and the Minister might also advise us at what exact stage he knew about that. Those are fairly substantial sums of money. At what stage did the Minister know about those? The Minister might also tell us what, if anything, he might have done to take some action at that stage, or maybe he was just waiting on another report.

The chairman of the board advised us that while there were significant lessons to be learned, he would not change any of the actions he had taken. That drew a fair degree of response from the committee because the actions taken have led us to this situation where there is a significant or catastrophic - whatever term one wants to use - cost overrun. The chairman of the board was at pains to point out that lessons were learned. I am not convinced, but he did say that. Has the Minister learned any lessons from this? He might share with us what those lessons are and what, indeed, could have been done that was not done and what will be done differently.

This is my final question, as I have put all my questions together to give the Minister loads of time to answer.

An Taoiseach has said that projects will be delayed, deferred or possibly cancelled altogether because of this overrun. There are people in Limerick, Donegal, Monaghan and in communities throughout the State waiting for hospital beds. They are waiting for vital local projects to put in the capacity we all agree we need. How will these projects be impacted by the failure to contain the cost of the children's hospital?