Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 30 May 2024

Public Accounts Committee

Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board

9:30 am

Mr. Phelim Devine:

There is a very robust quality management system in place. The contract demands that BAM put that in place. That is operated by the inspectorate team that Mr. Gunning just explained. Issuing non-conformance reports is part of that system. There are non-conformance reports, which are significant issues that need to be addressed by the contractor, and there are observations, which are minor snags. There are 61 open at the moment - they get raised and they get closed - but they will all be closed, including anything that is in dispute, prior to substantial completion because otherwise the contractor will not reach substantial completion. On a weekly basis, the design team works with the contractor, the contractor makes a submission to say, "This is how I might deal to close this", and that is approved or not. Then the work is done and it is signed off. Therefore, none of those will impact substantial completion. They should not impact substantial completion. The contractor needs to get them closed.