Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair for his clarification and fairness. I am more than happy to answer the questions, however, and I would not like to leave the elephant in the room regarding the national children's hospital. It is a large amount of public expenditure.

Regarding Deputy Jonathan O'Brien's question, a decision was made in 2007 to set up a National Paediatric Hospital Development Board. I cannot speak for my predecessors, but it was a decision I re-endorsed so I can speak to the rationale. It was that this was such a large project, on a mega-scale, that no Department in the public service would necessarily have the capacity to deliver it. The sensible thing to do then was to bring in the experts and appoint a competency-based board. That was done.

As we neared the bigger stages of the project, the major construction stage, Deputy Jonathan O'Brien is quite correct that the Government decided that there was more involved than just building a hospital. We were constructing a building but also integrating three hospitals, setting up an entirely new entity and putting in a new IT system. There were many different moving parts in the project and there needed to be a structure to oversee what was happening. The Government approved that structure. I am not going to give a definitive answer on this issue today, other than to say there is no doubt that the governance structures will need to change and will need to be strengthened. The report does not find, however, that there should be a clear-out of the board. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien has not suggested that it does. In fact-----