Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

A couple of years ago in Dublin, four builders were asked to price a job. The tenders had to be submitted by 5 p.m. on a Friday. A week beforehand, one of the builders rang the other three and proposed a meeting. They were aware of the identities of the other tenderers. At the meeting, a deal was proposed whereby they would meet five hours before the tenders were due to be submitted and open the tenders, with the second-lowest tender getting the job and the lowest tenderer revising its price. It drove the price of the job up by approximately €2.5 million. It was a relatively big job for a private entity. The company carried out an investigation to find out why the cost was so high. It found out what had occurred and threw the four builders out. I would throw BAM out. Yesterday, Professor Jimmy Sheehan spoke at the briefing organised by Deputy Mattie McGrath in the audiovisual room. He made a lot of sense. Connolly hospital should be reconsidered as a location for the hospital. As a builder, I know that if the Government persists with the development of the children's hospital on the site of St. James's Hospital-----

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