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

I brought forward amendments to that legislation, which were focused on the capacity of the health committee to have a role in assessing the members of the board. That aside, the Minister gave the board a ringing endorsement, all the while this project was escalating out of control. I will not use my words but I will quote a senior Fianna Fáil person who said that "the children's hospital scandalous overspend is affront to every child waiting for an operation and we now have a review that is an affront to accountability". I am not the only person who does not have a massive amount of faith in the Minister or in his many reports or reviews.

According to the minutes of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board in March 2018, one of the subcommittees of the board was very critical of BAM's refusal to engage with the GMP process, that is, the GMP process the Minister is saying is the greatest thing since sliced pan. In September 2018, the board noted:

The performance of BAM during the phase A construction works fell far short of what would be expected from a Tier 1 contractor. BAM, had not demonstrated that they were adequately resourced to complete the phase A works. In the event of and prior to a phase B award the contractor would need to address these issues.

Before the Minister signed off on phase B, did he ask any questions on whether these issues and the poor performance of the main contractor, as outlined in the minutes, had been addressed? What steps did he take to ensure that performance had been addressed? Did he ask any questions about the performance of the main contractor before he handed it another massive cheque?

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