Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach, when he was the Minister for Health at the time, said that "short of an asteroid hitting the planet" the national children's hospital would be built for €700 million by 2020. It is amazing. He did not have the insight that Deputy Durkan had at the time, unfortunately. I see myself as a left-of-centre political activist and I believe in the State being very involved in projects. I have to say that a project such as this, though, nearly causes me to question this view. Does putting "national" before something mean the costs of a project are going to explode? Can the State not do projects like this now? The simple question I have is: who is responsible for this problem? If the lens is completely pulled back, who is responsible for the fact that this project is not being built for €700 million and was not completed in 2020?

The other issue here is whether the Minister is investigating the reasons for the massive increase in costs and the delays with this project. Is any investigation currently under way? Are there any ongoing efforts to ascertain this information? Then there is again this dreaded word of "accountability". Is any effort being made to see who is accountable for this situation? Is it the construction company itself? Is this company at fault in respect of failing to deliver within the terms of the initial contract? Is the development board at fault here? Is the Department at fault? Who is at fault here?

I have a few smaller queries as well. A particularly important question concerns the fact that there has been a dearth of published minutes from the board's meetings over the years. I do not think any have been made available in the last year. Now that Deputy Durkan is gone, it might be helpful if the Minister wishes to address some of these questions so we can have a back-and-forth discussion.