Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses and thank them for their opening statements. We all want to see a national children's hospital built, completed and fully operational as soon as possible. During our last engagement, we heard about the number of claims that were potentially outstanding. As other speakers noted, it is extremely regrettable and very worrying that we cannot get a handle on the cost. We are here on behalf of the public to establish the costs to, and potential exposure of, the public purse in respect of this project. For the witnesses to come here this morning and say they cannot estimate that cost, or will not do so out of fear of litigation, is worrying from our perspective and will be worrying for the public. That is not to take away from the importance and strategic nature of the children's hospital. I look forward to visiting the site again. I was there before when I was on the HSE's regional health forum prior to being elected to the Dáil. I look forward to seeing the progress made on site.

I have a number of questions for the witnesses. Colleagues have asked about claims. I refer to the report of this committee in 2019 arising out of its engagement with the witnesses. Recommendation No. 1 stood out for me. It notes: "The Committee finds it absolutely unacceptable that nobody can give a reasonably accurate estimate of the expected final costs for the completion and fitting out of the National Children's Hospital." Two years later, we are still none the wiser and that is why I am so worried. It is really concerning that, two years on and given the delays that have occurred, both the witnesses from the board and the Department still cannot estimate the cost. Recommendation No. 2 in the report states:

The Committee agrees with the recommendations presented in PwC's New Children's Hospital Independent review of escalation of costs, April 2019. The Committee recommends that all 11 recommendations in review are implemented without delay.

Can Mr. Gunning inform the committee whether the 11 recommendations from that PwC report have been fully implemented?