Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

No one is saying the challenge would have changed but the Minister was the one writing the cheque. I would be furious, if I was sitting in his seat, that it took months to be told of this overrun.

Perhaps the full scale of it was not known in June or July but it was serious enough to be brought to the attention of the Department of Health, the Minister, and the HSE in August. Issues are flagged all the time and Ministers are told something is an emerging issue but that the full scale and scope of it is not known. In regard to the cost of the national children's hospital, the Minister is telling us that nobody flagged with him or with any official in his Department that it was an emerging issue. That is unbelievable.