Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 19 May 2022
Public Accounts Committee
2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Vote 39 - Office of Government Procurement
Vote 43 - Office of Government Chief Information Officer
2020 Report on the Accounts of the Public Services of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
9:30 am
Mr. David Moloney:
I will take the children's hospital piece first. My understanding is the answer to that is "No". It will not. The children's hospital has its own framework. In effect, under the existing public works contracts, as I understand it, after three years, negotiations on price changes cannot take place in any case. Obviously, the children's hospital project is more than three years but, as the Chairman said, there is that 4% provision in the contract, which is quite a bespoke arrangement.
On energy, the Chairman is quite right that energy costs for construction are mostly a relatively small component, but there are particular construction firms for whom it would be a larger proportion of their costs.