Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 2 October 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

Quarterly Meeting on Health Issues: Discussion

Photo of Alan KellyAlan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have a range of questions for the Minister. I will have a quick-fire round now with some priority questions as they will take a bit of time, and I will ask more in the second or third time I come in, or both. My initial questions, just to prepare the Minister's officials, relate to the children's hospital and to what is going on in the mid-west, which the Minister has touched on. My other question relates to gynaecological services in Letterkenny. If I have time I will also ask about CervicalCheck. As I have said, I will have other questions later.

I refer to the minutes of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board, NPHDB, and the children's hospital programme and project steering group over the last months of this year. I have a copy of the minutes and their sub-committee minutes here and I have gone through them. Will the Minister supply this committee with all minutes of the boards and sub-commitees to the Chairman within a week? I presume the Minister will do this and I would appreciate that. This is the first request.

The NPHDB minutes of 3 April state that the finance and construction committee received a report wherein it was reported that additional monetary risk had been identified on provisional funds. It also stated that this was going to affect the timelines for the hospital. I am aware that Mr. Reid has written to the board members looking for this revised timetable. Perhaps Mr. Reid will send on this letter to the committee, and the response, if he has it. On 29 April, on the procurement sub-committee meeting, the minutes express concerns around the costs as they are appearing.

I have spoken to people and we all know there are further issues concerning this hospital. At this point at the beginning of October what is the status of the timelines for the delivery of the overall project? Has the Minister been informed of any issues regarding the timelines and, if so, when and by whom? I direct the same question to Mr. Reid.

At what scale are the costs escalating? I remember once being accused by the Taoiseach in the Dáil Chamber of exaggerating in that respect. The figure I mentioned at this committee has been superseded and increased on and the Taoiseach admitted in effect admitted that since. What scale of an increase are we talking about or is the Minister aware of?

I ask Mr. Reid, in particular, to advise what concerns he has relating to the costs and timelines in accordance with the reason he wrote that letter? Obviously, he has read the minutes of the board meetings, as I have.

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