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

I think the object for all of us should be to try to keep the cost of this hospital down. I know there are all sorts of speculation as to the cost it will reach and so on but, as I keep saying, a contract goes both ways. I asked very specifically what the triggers were whereby the State or the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board could counter-claim. I asked if there were other triggers and was told there were no other triggers. Then one of our requests back to the board was that it review the transcripts of the meeting of 16 June and confirm that it is satisfied that the information provided to the committee is entirely accurate. I will pick at just a few things in the response. Mr. Gunning said we should have drawn the committee's attention to a penalty clause on subsection completion. It goes on to state further down, regarding penalty clauses on subsection completion, "The NPHDB is currently reviewing all options that may or may not be taken in relation to liquidated damages..."

It goes on. The issue here was that they appear to have withheld moneys at one point but, because they did not go through the correct process, there was difficulty. Essentially, they are telling us that they have to go through due process before they can seek to deduct moneys that would otherwise be due to the contractor. I would have wished to engage with them on exactly the details and fallout of that and what due process they had to go through. However, when I asked if there were other triggers, they immediately answered "No". I moved on because I thought that was the case.

It is much less satisfactory to deal with this, in this kind of way, in retrospect. We were not given correct information and that was what very much annoyed me. They are now telling us that this is another trigger with regard to the process. However, I am not sure about the quantum of what could be challenged on this. We can evaluate the number of claims made by the contractor. We can be told there are 25 claims, how much they amount to and the amount of the biggest claim. However, we do not have a similar overview of this side of things. We need such an overview.