Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am just laying out the case. The sanctioning body was the Government and the appropriate Department was the Department of Health. We see from the minutes that have been released that the Department of Health was seeking to meet officials of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform for a number of weeks to discuss the issue, but that meeting did not take place. It took place at a later stage after the Minister had been alerted to the overruns. Correspondence from Barry O'Brien to Tracey Conroy in the Department of Health basically states the Department received nothing from the Department of Health that considered the total cost and where the overall cost of the project stood. It asks questions about other non-construction costs amounting to €300 million, whether that figure will increase and if it is now a project that will cost over €2 billion, which would make it the most expensive hospital in the world. It appears from the content and tone of the email that the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform was put out by the fact that it had not been informed of this increase. It acknowledges that there were some discussions on it at budget time, but there was no detail. Is it the case that if a Department is developing a major project, whether it be a rail line, road or sewage treatment plant, and aware of a major overrun, that it is okay not to bring that information to the attention of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform?