Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I refer to the positivity. We have spoken about what was lost. I believe the CMO's experience and leadership was lost. I have asked the Department to invite members of the committee to the site. It really is worth doing for any of us who have spent time in hospitals around the country and particularly the children's hospitals. It is an extraordinary piece of health infrastructure. It will make such a difference.

The Deputy made the point about committed versus approved. This speaks to Deputy Doherty's very reasonable challenge around money being committed versus money being approved. The intent was to commit the money but with the caveat and it is regrettable that was not in the letter of intent. It was committed and fully accepted. That is the finding in the report. At the same time it had yet to be approved because it would have required my approval and ultimately involved a vote of all of us here through the budget to approve it. Was the money being committed? Yes it was but had it been approved? No, it had not. There were various things that still had to be done in that case.

Deputy Durkan quite rightly spoke about my previous criticisms of the national children's hospital project which is now my responsibility. I thank the Deputy for the reminder. He is not wrong. He rarely is. The big issue here is time. Of the money we are talking about, most is committed. A large amount is still under dispute. What we need to do is let the board at it. Our speculation around how much more it will be is perfectly natural. Of course we speculate like that, but I am concerned it has the potential to play into the hands of the contractor. The best thing we can do is accept these are commercially sensitive interactions. The board is trying to do its best and we need to give it the space to do that.