Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

We are all acutely aware of the number of claims. I am sure the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board is doing its best to adjudicate on and reduce those claims. They are over and above the €1.73 billion estimate we have been talking about. There are a substantial number of those claims. I agree entirely with the Chair on the points we raised. We made a specific effort to identify some issues, including whether insufficient numbers of staff are working on the site. That was the case at times during this contract and it is part of the reason this contract has run as long as it has, with construction inflation now a real issue. That is built into the contract. It is entirely valid for us to satisfy ourselves about whether sufficient numbers of staff are on the site.

The price of the national children's hospital is almost like the third secret of Fatima. It is being guarded. I can understand why a bad situation should not be made worse. It is valid of us to ensure we do not make a bad situation worse. That includes, for example, ensuring sufficient numbers of staff are on the site and this project does not run longer than it needs to, not least because we require this hospital. It also means we have a significant problem with inflation. I do not see why this question has not been properly answered, in addition to some of the other points we made. Care was taken to put this letter together to ensure it would specify exactly what information we were looking for.