Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy made a definitive statement repeatedly that stop orders have been issued. The assistant secretary has stated repeatedly that, to the best of his knowledge, no such stop orders have issued. I am just giving that as one example. I am happy to be corrected if the record shows he did not say this but I think I also heard the Deputy say that the warnings provided by the subcontractor were completely ignored by the board. I do not think we have any evidence to date that they were completely ignored. We do not know that. Respectfully, and I am really not trying to pick a fight with the Deputy, he made a series of definitive statements that I am not sure are backed up by the facts as they are known. That is all I am saying. It sounds to me like a specialist raised concerns. I have no doubt but that those concerns were taken seriously. I imagine that they would have been considered in the round of the much greater complexity not just of the air-con systems within theatres, which obviously are very important, but also of the entire build. I do not know if the Deputy or other members of the committee have had the opportunity yet to visit the hospital but the level of complexity within these new operating theatres in terms of mechanical and electrical systems, clinical systems and ICT systems really is something to behold. They are extraordinarily complex, state-of-the-art systems. It sounds like there was a test done on the air con systems. If I heard the assistant secretary correctly, he said that the first test was passed and that maybe one of the other tests was not passed. It sounds like the board has now done what any of us would expect it to have done, which is to put workshops together with the mechanical and electrical experts to look at whether or not remedial works are required. That is my understanding of where the situation is.