Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I find it incredible that the Minister would not would not have told the Minister for Finance, but if that is his story and he is going to stick with it, that is fine.

In July the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board was informed that the Minister had accepted its memorandum requesting reappointment. These are the people who were in charge. We now know the scale and trajectory of the overrun was known to the development board with the size of the overrun going from €95 million to €191 million and on so by August. In this period, the Minister reappointed the entire board. When he reappointed the board and gave it that massive seal of approval, did he seek any advice on the performance of the board and its members? Did he discuss the results of the board's performance in relation to the project? If he did not, will he accept that was negligent on his part? If he did, will he tell us who the hell was backing this board? All the problems arose on its watch and that of the Minister. The Minister is supposed to be in charge. The board was supposed to be doing its work. The trajectory of the overspend as predicted was only going in one direction and yet in the middle of this, the board got a massive endorsement from the Minister.

See this speech in context