Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge the Minister has been answering questions for several hours but I want to bring this back to the hospital. This is the fourth session we have had on the hospital. We have met the development board, the hospital group, the HSE, the Department of Health and this is the second time we have met the Minister. A common theme we are hearing at committee is that while it is all very regrettable, nobody has done anything wrong. The two stage process, which was clearly the wrong process, has been repeatedly defended. I put the withholding of information from the Dáil to the Minister, and he has defended it, as is his right. I would argue that if a Minister is asked if we are on budget and knows we are several hundred million euro over budget, then it is misleading the Dáil to say we are still on budget. He has given his reasons for that.

The withholding of information from the Cabinet, the Minister for Finance, Fianna Fáil and the Taoiseach during budget negotiations has been defended. It has been defended that not a single commercial contract has been cancelled, in spite of the fact the Minister said a few minutes ago that the quantities were completely off the Richter scale. As Deputy Brassil alluded to earlier on, if private contractors get their quantities wrong to the tune of being completely off the Richter scale, those companies tend to be fired. People tend to lose their jobs but not here. When I put it to the officials in previous sessions as to why no commercial contract had been cancelled, that was also defended as well. Everything has been defended.

The most egregious defence is the one on costs. This is what I want to put to the Minister. I want clarity on this. I have sat through hours of debate on this and I still do not know what the Government's position is on costs and on whether or not it believes that a reasonable cost is being paid. My position, which I have put forward several times, is that per bed, this will be the most expensive hospital ever built by a mile.