Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 16 May 2019
Public Accounts Committee
National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed)
9:00 am
Mr. Jim Breslin:
Yes. It was aware that the GMP process was under way, that it was challenging and that there was a push from the developer for increased costs. Perhaps I have to be more careful about what I say, given that I am on the record, but I have stated that when I came back from leave, maybe because people had generated a reputation, I immediately assumed it was somebody trying it on. I assumed we were being pushed by the developer into a place where we needed to be much harder and clearer and to challenge the behaviour. What PwC has established was that, as I stated in January in hindsight, the design has developed over the period to such an extent that the quantities have gone up. In August and September, I very much stated to the development board that it was a State entity, working on behalf of the taxpayer, that it should not accept what people were saying because they had an interest in trying to make extra costs and that it should push back on everything.
No comments