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

We did our best to try to have the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board and Children’s Health Ireland into the public accounts committee before this Dáil was dissolved. They offered times that, clearly, if there was going to be a pre-Christmas election, would have fallen within the time the election was being held. We need to know when this hospital we be complete. We need to interrogate the 2022 accounts properly. Much of what would have been in that are claims from BAM, which is the very contentious element of the overrun in the cost of this children’s hospital. It is absolutely unacceptable to find ourselves in this position, and I think most of us are pretty furious about that - I certainly am. It almost feels like it has been, in many ways, deliberate to try to avoid the kind of scrutiny this committee would have the opportunity to provide on one of the biggest spends - a set of accounts that are one of the oldest ones we would have looked at. There is a lot of public concern about it. It is completely unacceptable. I regret that I am saying this on the last day I will be in the Dáil and this public accounts committee. This is one of the ones we absolutely needed to have in. I think we have been frustrated in our attempt to do that and it is just not acceptable.