John Brassil (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This meeting concerns the quarterly update so, obviously, I would like to spend a lot of time on the issue of the nurses' strike. I know that we will have an opportunity to discuss the matter on Thursday morning so I will save my contribution for that. As the Minister is aware, the GPs are outside Leinster House today. Again, there is a significant issue around primary care delivery and the new contract. Could the Minister give me a brief update on those issues along with a brief update on the Sláintecare implementation group?

I will focus on the issue that seems to be dominating today's proceedings, namely, the national children's hospital. I watched proceedings on the monitor in my office and Mr. Breslin spoke about a serious underestimation of quantities and that prices had been obtained for individual items. I have two questions relating to that. Why was there a serious under-estimation of quantities and who made that error? Were there complete omissions of quantities? If this was a private client engaging a design team and the team came in with a seriously under-estimated bill of quantities, that client would take very serious action against the team that was responsible for the under-estimation right up to, I would imagine, suing the team. Why did such an under-estimation occur? Were there complete omissions? What action can we take against those who made those errors?