Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Given that this is the largest project in the history of the Department, was any attention paid to the magnitude when the tenders were awarded and the testing of the tenders? Was the bill of quantities around at that time? It should have been and I presume it was. I know the bill of quantities was ultimately found to be short of the target. Why was that not spotted at the stage when it should have been spotted? From the cost increases in front of me, which I will not go through again, it appears there was a serious deficiency in the degree to which the tenderer could assess the price and come up with a competitive price and, at the same time, not come up with a shortfall if that information was not precise. Given that three projects are running together - the one in the children's hospital, the one in the urgent care centre in Blanchardstown and the one in Tallaght - to what extent were they all examined at the same time with a view to identifying possible snags because when there are three different projects and three different sites, there is the potential for something to go wrong?