Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Dáil's Committee of Public Accounts cannot even get a figure, to the nearest €100 million, for how much this children's hospital will cost. We learned today that the board has a complex contract in place with a contractor, to facilitate different levels of dispute resolution and conciliation and all that comes with that, yet we heard there have been 700 conciliation claims by the contractor, with a potential outlay of €300 million. We learned that, leaving aside High Court actions, we spent €691,000 and €466,000 on legal costs in 2019 and 2020, respectively. We are learning - the witnesses might tell me if I am wrong - that the number of conciliation claims on behalf of the contractor will only increase. Despite all that, we still cannot get a specific timeframe for when the hospital will be complete.

Mr. Gunning stated on a number of occasions that he came on board in 2019. Who is responsible for this absolutely scandalous debacle, whereby we have a contract built on quicksand, based on what I can see and what the committee has heard today?