Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

My next question is addressed to the Minister, Deputy Donohoe. He knows I keep going on about circular 12/10. We have a difference of opinion in regard to what that circular means and our party has a very defined view of what it means. I will outline what it means in regard to this project, where a very senior civil servant from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform is sitting on the board. Point 4 of that circular states that the Minister must be notified without delay where there are serious weaknesses in controls that have not been addressed despite being drawn to the attention of the board or the chairman, or there is a significant strategic or reputational risk to the body that is not being addressed.

The Minister, Deputy Donohoe, answered a parliamentary question from me in recent days by stating that all civil servants across the public service are subject to this circular. It is not credible to most of us who observe this that there could be a senior civil servant from the Minister's Department sitting on the board who is subject to that circular yet, during all this period, there were Chinese walls and nothing was brought to the attention of the Minister or the Secretary General. In combination, it is not credible that, during a whole budgetary negotiation and a whole confidence and supply negotiation, none of the concerns being expressed at board level to this individual was being brought to the Minister's attention. It is also not credible that on 17 October the Department of Health contacted the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform yet, even though the Minister knew on 9 November, according to the emails released, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform did not know or have detail until 21 November.

Either the timelines I have outlined are wrong, which would be a concern considering how far we have come, or else there is some dysfunctionality in that Department. There are a number of people in that Department whose full-time job is to manage the Department of Health's budget and where it is spending and over-spending. That has not changed. Either the timelines are wrong or there is some level of dysfunctionality. How in the name of God could it be reasonable to say a Government is functioning properly when it took more than a month to sit down and talk about the largest capital project in the State?

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