Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I need to be careful because, while we have privilege here, I do not want to say anything that could undermine a decision that may or may not be made. The National Paediatric Hospital Development Board has contracts for professional services with professional bodies on our behalf, effectively, as taxpayers. My initial reading of this report from PwC, which was brought in as a financial auditor, raises questions about the accuracy of some of the information that was given which then had a complete knock-on effect in the cost estimation. The PwC report does not find that there was a waste of taxpayers' money but it does find that this project was always going to cost more than we thought.

Page 4 of the report suggests that some of the information given had material errors in it. There are significant questions for some professional companies to answer and I do not intend to go further than that today but I intend to meet with the chair of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board to get his view on that and I presume the board will seek advice on this and I hope they do.