Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am willing to do whatever I believe it takes but that is not my initial thought. My initial thoughts are that the statutory instrument gives me the power to alter the size of the board and to add people. While I have not made these decisions less than 24 hours after the publication of a report, I can state with certainty that I will be strengthening the board, particularly in the areas the PwC report has identified should be strengthened. The whole area of health construction is one that has been highlighted and that I need to respond to. I will be strengthening the board and I expect that will definitely mean additional members. My understanding, from advice, is that I have the legal ability to do that through the statutory instrument. I also have, as Deputy Jonathan O'Brien rightly states, a vacancy on the board at the moment. It is important to state that the chair of the board, as the Deputy knows, is brand new to the role as well. There also will be a new project director because that individual has also announced, previous to this report, that he is intending to step down.

My short answer is I will be strengthening the board. I also expect we will be changing the governance arrangements. I, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, and our Departments need to do some work on that aspect. The Government has, however, accepted all 11 recommendations. Let there be no ambiguity about that. We have to operationalise them now and come up with a detailed implementation plan. I welcome input from this committee in that regard and I also propose to meet the authors of the report. It is possible to read a report - and I have read this report several times - but also very useful to have the authors talk me through it and scrutinise some of the lines and what was behind them in respect of what the authors think I should do next. I will also meet Mr. Fred Barry in the coming days, as chair of the board, to get his sense of what further skill sets can help the project.