Neasa Hourigan (Dublin Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

To follow on from the previous Deputy, I think it will be hard for us to get to a number. In light of the saga of the paediatric hospital, however, it is totally valid for us to ask what the clauses are in the tender, how that tender process is working and what we can do in that regard. When it comes to the numbers that are being bandied around, and I put this to the Minister at the time at the Joint Committee on Health, the proposed building is 55,000 sq. m. Health buildings at the moment cost approximately €5,000 per sq. m. Even with massive inflation, we are talking about a base cost of approximately €275 million. If we add in, let us say, one third for commissioning and one third for fees, we are still nowhere near €800 million, which is what we were talking about at the time of the decision-making. I do not know where we got to €1 billion, but even €800 million was a huge inflation. I do not know how we got there. When I put that to the Minister, I really got no answer to that. It was said that is what had been reported in the media. I would really like to understand this.

I know the decision has been made now. I believe it has all been signed off from a project quality index point of view. At the time of the decision, however, the business case had not been signed off by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. It had been set out but the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform refused it and sent it back. I would love to understand and it would be really important for the Committee of Public Accounts to understand where the business case is right now. Has it been signed off by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform? What is that situation?

There is an issue around spending when there has been no agreement. That is terrible in terms of public money and governance. I do not think we should ever accept that. To spend €50 million or €90 million - we are not even taking the number seriously now because it is all just a figure in taxpayers' money - when we do not have an agreement in place is atrocious.

Finally, if we are going back to the Department of Health to ask for information, particularly now that we are talking about Spanish hospitals and stuff, as I did at the time I would like to flag the fact that a scoping exercise for the maternity hospital was done on the Elm Park site in 2012. There is a fully built hospital that has been empty for ten years sitting on the Elm Park site. My understanding is that the scoping exercise found it was suitable for a maternity hospital. The National Maternity Hospital did that scoping exercise and it found that it was suitable for a maternity hospital and for its needs. I would love to see that report and for the Department of Health to release that report in order that we could see that scoping exercise. My understanding is that the building is still empty.