Dáil debates

Wednesday, 6 February 2019

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions

 

12:00 pm

Photo of Michael McGrathMichael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister has not dealt with the elephant in the room, which is the lack of any political oversight over the single largest capital project in the history of the Department of Health and the HSE. Why is it that officials representing the Minister, Deputy Harris, knew for up to a year that the cost of this project was spiralling through the roof before it was even brought to his attention? That is what we are led to believe. Why is it that the Minister for Health himself, on learning that this was a major issue in late August 2018, allowed a budget to be brought into the House and prepared against a backdrop of not knowing that this was going to manifest itself by way of hundreds of millions of euro of an overrun? We have a Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform who was represented on the board but who also happened not to be told. The Minister, Deputy Harris, says his officials told the officials in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in October yet the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, was not told. Does anyone talk to anyone in this Government? This is all over the place and meanwhile, there is no certainty that the costs associated with the project will not climb further and further. What reassurance can the Minister give to the House and to the people that the costs are going to be reined in and that efforts will be made to reduce the cost of delivering this project?

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.