Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We will get to that in a moment. The Deputy would be asking me much more serious questions if we did. European Union procurement law dictates that companies can apply and people cannot be excluded from that procurement process. The Deputy is correct and it is a cause of great concern for us that we see on a number of projects extra claims coming in all the time. It would be the easiest thing in the world for me to say to the Deputy that that is what is behind these issues, but it is not a large part of the problem. Looking at the breakdown of the cost overrun, there are significant other elements at play. It is not as simple as in other projects, perhaps, where we could say there were many additional claims lobbed in. I genuinely believe that.

There is the question of who selected the board. The original national paediatric hospital development board was, to the best of my knowledge, appointed by the Government on the recommendation of my predecessor, former Deputy and current Senator James Reilly, in 2013. It was reappointed by me for continuity in 2018. When I reappointed the board, as I mentioned to colleagues earlier, I pointed out in the appointment letter to each member that we would pass the new law through the Oireachtas, which we did before Christmas. It is the Children's Health Act 2018. It gave me the power to replace the board if I choose to do so, and I will consider my options on the future of the board and the governance of the project when I receive the PricewaterhouseCoopers report.