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

The Chairman made a number of points I wanted to make. The most recent figure I have to hand is €1.7 billion and rising in terms of the development of this hospital so when Mr. Watt says that this is about ensuring the delivery of a world-class healthcare facility, I would say by Christ, I hope so for that type of money. It is also becoming more evident by the month that the underlying foundations in terms of the contractual basis on which this hospital is being developed are severely damaged and that the measures taken to address those have been insufficient up until this point. I have to say that anyone who thought the appointment of Mr. Watt as the new Secretary General would have led to a different type of impetus we all agree is warranted will be disappointed by the response. He has indicated that the Department will return to the committee ahead of the summer recess but caveats it by saying it will be to discuss matters that are not commercially sensitive. Commercial sensitivity is in place to protect the members of a contractual agreement. Commercial sensitivity is not protecting the public interest in this regard. In fact, it is undermining it. In respect of it being used as a cloak to refuse to answer the questions this committee has or to disclose the details of the report, when we met the board, everything was being based on this report as if it was going to be the panacea when it came to answers. We need to bring the Department in as quickly as possible. I support the date of mid-July given by Deputy Munster. I agree that if required, this committee should reconvene during the recess. We can give no cover to the Department in this regard. It needs to be made clear to the Department that we expect it to come in to answer questions relating to how the cost overrun has been so beyond anybody's imagination and what measures are now in place to curtail those overruns. This committee has heard that we could be looking at €2 billion and rising by the end of the day. While we all agree that the hospital is a vital piece of public infrastructure, we also need to acknowledge that lots of other really important pieces of infrastructure will not be completed because of the overruns in this instance.