Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Thank you. That is very generous. We will be here for the day probably. As Mr. Breslin and the Minister know, I sit on both the Joint Committee on Health and the Committee of Public Accounts. A few issues arose that I hope we will get through today. Something came up on Thursday. I want this hospital. I want it to continue. I do not want it to be paused or stopped. I am fully aware of the political pressures and medical politics that have led to the delay of this hospital that was first mooted in 1962. Sometimes I feel as if I am banging my head off a wall in here. I am very concerned about the future of the project. I spoke late last Thursday evening in this same room at the Committee of Public Accounts about the liquidity of BAM. What I am concerned about is the situation with subcontractors that are being given jobs by BAM, such as M&E, which keeps being mentioned as one subcontractor. Does BAM have enough headroom if one of the subcontractors goes bust? If M&E goes bust and is not liquid and the job has been given at whatever price, what happens then? I was not happy with the answer I got last Thursday evening in that, for me, this is about not having a hospital half way out of the ground.

We spoke on 16 January about specification with regard to the hospital and we heard about the famous 5 km of cables and we did not know how many lengths of 5 km. Last night I thought about what would not have changed from point A to B. The windows would not have changed. We saw a model of the hospital with the glass on the outside. Could anybody get me the price that was quoted on the specification for the hospital for the glass on the first day and the glass on the second day? We saw a model. I questioned Professor Hardiman as to whether it was full of cotton wool inside the model because it was clear that nobody worked out whether there were 6,000 rooms. We know the size of the building and the amount of glazing on the outside. I would like to compare that figure just to see who is making the money here.

Mr. Breslin might come back to me after lunch on a figure on a sheet the Committee of Public Accounts was given last week. If I remember correctly, there was a €66 million saving in the 2017 costs. I am sorry as other members of this committee might not have this document in front of them. Unless I am reading it wrong, this €66 million saving was not transferred to the 2018 costs. I am missing €66 million on that balance sheet. Could somebody look at that on the next break and get back to me on it? I am not happy that there is minus €66 million on one side and it does not reflect on the other side.

I have asked for this information already. I would like to know in terms of the people involved in this project, who was working on a fixed contract and who was working on a percentage. Who was going to gain financially in terms of more money being spent? Was an architect working off 1%? Were quantity surveyors working off 3%? Obviously, if there was more work to be done, they deserve more money but I want to know how many of those getting taxpayers' money have an elastic fee system.

Perhaps Mr. Woods would like to speak at some point to his position, unless I have the wrong Mr. Woods. He is national director of acute operations in the HSE. He was on the 12 person board beside Mr. Quinn from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. At any point did he consider that if he was spending all his money on a children's hospital, given his role as national director of acute operations, he would not be able to do his job. I refer to Deputy Kelly's circular 12/10. It is fairly clear to me from that circular what his role was.