Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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We are due to have the HSE in. We need to use the first hearing we have with it to zoom in in a more focused way and try to get better outcomes. I thank the Deputy.

Can we agree the listing of accounts and financial statements, first? Is that agreed? Agreed. As usual, the listing of accounts and financial statements will be published as part of our minutes.

It is 11.10 a.m. The committee is free, if people wish, to break for five or ten minutes for coffee or use the bathroom. As everyone is okay, we will continue.

We are moving to correspondence. As previously agreed, items that were not flagged for discussion for this meeting will continue to be dealt with in accordance with the proposed actions that have been circulated, and decisions taken by the committee in relation to correspondence are recorded in the minutes of the committee’s meetings and published on the committee’s web page.

Members have flagged items for discussion under category B - correspondence from Accounting Officers and-or Ministers and follow up to committee meetings.

No. R2726, received from Mr Ray Mitchell, assistant national director, Health Service Executive, dated 9 July 2024, provides an update on the delivery of the new electronic health record system throughout the HSE. I propose we note and publish this item. Is that agreed? Agreed. I have flagged this item for discussion along with No. R2736. Can we take that item as well, with the committee's agreement? Agreed.

BAM started court proceedings in respect of some of its claims in June. The board is unhappy with BAM and has given the example of a €25 million claim for works on vents that, after a review, the board can resolve for €200,000, among other matters. The full cost of claims and the finish date are still not known up to this date. The correspondence we have outlines that the board met the Committee of Public Accounts in May and states that BAM continues to submit large volumes of claims, including duplication and triplication of claim time and value. That is an interesting statement on behalf of the board. The board of the hospital is robustly defending the claims which it says it considers to be without merit or to be inflated. In June 2024, BAM had submitted 2,311 claims to the value of €793 million. It is noted that while four sets of proceedings have been referred to the High Court, the net change to date in the overall contract sum is stated to be approximately €34.1 million excluding inflation.

Since the commencement of programme B works in January 2019, the board is stating that BAM has failed to achieve its planned progress and has therefore failed to deliver its contractual substantial completion date of August 2022. Since the last baseline programme was issued by BAM on 29 September 2023, BAM has on average achieved 64% of planned progress. Since March 2020, BAM has changed its forecast completion date multiple times. This is what the board is stating and it set its out in table 1. It is an ongoing issue. The most recent baseline programme that was deemed compliant with the contract by the employer's representative was in quarter 1 of 2021. The board says the latest baseline programme submission was received on 29 September and included a substantial completion date of 29 October 2024. The board states that, as it outlined to the PAC in May, the monthly progress report received from BAM in April indicated that the substantial completion date will be in February 2025. The board is saying that, according to the report it got from BAM and as it reported to us, it now believes the completion date will be February 2025. It says the continued failure of BAM to deliver an updated baseline programme which is compliant with the requirements of the contract means that BAM is not meeting its contractual obligations.

The board intends to move forward with sanctioning allowed in the contract. It will shortly submit a claim to the employer's representative asking for the employer's representative determination to allow for the board to withhold 15% of the certified payments until a BAM programme is determined with the employer's representative that is compliant. I flag that up with the committee. Members can see from that letter what is happening. They are in the planned work programme for the HSE but I think we need to include the board of the hospital in the work programme in view of that letter.