John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses. I will leave a minute at the end of my contribution to get an update on the Tallaght satellite and how that is progressing. If our witnesses cannot provide that here, they might forward to the committee a note on it.

Is there are state-to-state diplomatic element to resolving this? Royal BAM Group has a very good name internationally. We also had a Cabinet-approved new national maternity hospital announced yesterday. I got a text from a constituent last night asking to ensure we do not give that contract to BAM. This just cannot go on.

It sounds as though the company has just loosely walked off the site until this is resolved. I do not mean to say “walked off the site” as I can see that our witnesses are cringing at that and I must be careful with the language I use. The productivity is not what the NPHDB expected, however. The contractor is not delivering to date what the development board had anticipated it would deliver. The process has slowed down. Does the NPHDB believe that is deliberate or is it because there is a shortage of man and woman power? I hear our witnesses’ frustration but I do not hear any big picture steps to resolve this, aside from stating that it is unacceptable. Is there no way of escalating this from government to government? The way the NPHDB has presented the position here is that this is all BAM’s fault. I am taking our witnesses at their word on that. This is the biggest project in the history of the State. This is an international company and I presume that were somebody to google it in the months ahead, all that would come up would be the kind of news being presented to this Oireachtas hearing and to previous hearings. This is not good news for a company with that kind of international reputation yet it does not seem to bother it.