Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It clearly did not work. I am looking back at the meeting of the Committee of Public Accounts on 8 October 2015, when Deputy John McGuinness was the Chairman. Mr. Costello and Mr. Pollock feature prominently at the meeting. The background was the debacle overseen by the previous board. Mr. Costello and Mr. Pollock were representing the new board taking over from a transition board. A board was in place from 2007 to 2013, then there was a transition board and then the current board. Mr. Costello and Mr. Pollock were asked questions by Deputy Joe Costello about what the new board had learned and what it would do. The two men here should read the Official Report. If they did they might provide a different opening statement. Mr. Pollock provided an opening statement to this meeting today, and Mr. Costello provided one to the Joint Committee on Health. Mr. Pollock said:

It was to produce our business case. Prior to getting approval to appoint the design team in August 2014, we had to have the business case updated to show that we were still operating within the figure of €650 million.

Mr. Pollock said that €650 million was the figure in 2015 and he continued saying that "A company, BDO, was appointed to carry out that work." On several occasions, the

witnesses were asked what they had learned. Mr. Costello said:

Unfortunately, we cannot rewrite history, but we have to learn and make sure that in every step we take along the way, in respect of any perceived weakness in the decision-making processes during the five years, we ensure this will not happen.

He was clearly aware that he was taking over what I would not call a poisoned chalice but what was a very difficult situation. He was fully aware that €35 million had been written-off from the previous debacle in relation to the Mater Hospital and some miserable amount like €6 million was saved and carried over. He was fully aware of all that and was alert to it. The previous Committee of Public Accounts teased all this out. Mr. Costello told it that the board would appoint a design team, undertake a stress test and so on. As well as stress tests and business cases, something must be learned. The Comptroller and Auditor General mentioned a project review at the time. A project review is usually done when a project is completed but in this case the Committee of Public Accounts agreed that there should be a review of the failure. Was that carried out?