Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As Deputy Munster is not present, I will come in. With regard to the contract, it is set out that, to date, 135 of 170 contractor design packages have been approved, and that information is given under the list of design changes. A figure was mentioned at one stage of up to 700 potentially, as I recall, and a figure of 400 was given for those they were supposed to be working through. What I want to analyse from that is where the discrepancy is between the figures we were given here by the board, when they were in last year, and the figures that are there now.

In terms of the project, it is said the procurement process for the contract commenced in 2015 and the form of contract used was a standard Office of Government Procurement public works contract for employer design, with some elements of the work contract modified to meet a two-stage procurement process. That does not tell us an awful lot. It is a long-winded description but it does not tell us exactly how that works. It states the evaluation of the tender submission was carried out using the most economically advantageous tender criteria in line with the Office of Government Procurement's capital works framework and the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board’s tender evaluation procedures. It was to be overseen by an independent third party and, presumably, they brought in a consultancy firm to oversee that. We need more information about the two-stage nature of that contract. It is obviously one of the things that allowed for the potential for a huge price increase in terms of the overall cost. We should ask them about point 3 in their letter, which caught my eye yesterday when I was reading it. While they give a long-winded description, it does not really tell us anything and it is just a form of words. They should explain why that is. In addition, this two-stage procurement process is left very much open-ended in terms of price for the second stage. Where has that model been used before?

As Deputy Murphy said, we are left second-guessing much of this because we do not have the report and we do not have the timeline. In the absence of clear information, it would appear the second phase was left very much open-ended in terms of cost and the price increases that could happen. We need more detailed information around that. I will ask the Clerk to request that from them.

I call Deputy Carthy.