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

Leaving that aside, what I am interested in and what this committee is interested in is whether there is a penalty clause built into the contract covering delays on the part of the contractor. I ask Mr. Watt to come back to us with clarification on that because it is very important.

We visited the site back in June, which was informative. We learned about the number of claims and what they were for, as well as about changes, some of which were very last minute. I know that everything cannot be foreseen, particularly on a big project but there were a huge number of claims, some of which were for very small things such as moving a window or changing a partition, for example. I asked the person from the board and the contractor to show me examples of what the claims were about. I was struck by the claims. Another issue that struck me was related to energy usage. I asked what provision was made to harvest any energy generated on site and whether there would be solar panels. I was told there was no room for solar panels. We were standing on top of the building, looking across the area at this point. We were looking down on terraces of houses that have gable ends of about 6 m or 7 m by 5 or 6 m across. We were looking at two-up, two-down and three-bedroom semi-detached houses, an awful lot of which were covered in solar panels but we were standing on a new building and were told that there would be no solar panels on it and no energy harvested from such panels. Again, I know Mr. Watt came in after the contract was signed and the work commenced but am I correct that none of this was built into the contract?

I am sure the hospital will be put into a very glossy portfolio by the architects involved in its design. It is one of those "wow" projects, for want of a better word. This is an amazing design of an amazing building and there is nothing like it anywhere in the State. However, in terms of maintenance, it will take an army of window cleaners alone to keep the windows clean. What is the annual estimated cost for maintenance and what is the situation regarding energy usage? I hope that some thought was given to this before it was signed off by the Department and the Minister. Can Mr. Watt give me an answer on the issues of energy usage and overall maintenance on an annual basis?