Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister outlined what the moneys outlined in the Revised Estimates would be used for. I wish to focus on two areas, one of which is the increased provision for the housing assistance payment, HAP, scheme to account for 16,000 extra tenancies. While that is welcome, there is a downside to pumping more money into the HAP system which I believe is flawed. The number of people coming into my constituency office who are being evicted from HAP properties into homelessness is increasing. I am sure it is reflected across all constituencies. Issues arise with HAP tenancies that must be addressed by the Government. It is becoming commonplace for landlords to send tenants a notice to quit on the basis that their property is going to be sold or that a family member is moving into it. I can provide the Minister with evidence to show that properties are back in the rental market six months later, as family members have not moved into them and they have not been sold. Tenants have been evicted because of three loopholes, as I call them, and end up in emergency accommodation at great financial and social cost to individuals and the rents charged for the properties are hiked up. That is something which needs to be addressed.

I welcome the publication yesterday of the PwC report on the national children's hospital. It was appropriate that the Government published it at the earliest opportunity and I have read it. I disagree slightly with Deputy Cowen on his point about the role of the contracts committee. To be clear, it did not make the decision to implement the two-stage process. It was asked for an opinion on whether the development board could use such a process. It outlined all of the pros and cons in undertaking the project over a two-stage tendering process and they were outlined clearly in the report. The decision to go down that road was made by the development board, not the contracts committee.

The oversight bodies that were put in place - the steering group and the programme project group - come in for some criticism in the report. The phrase being used is that they were hampered. They were able to assess the information coming from the development board, but they were not able to question a lot of the decision-making process.

The Government has asked for a number of weeks to assess the report and examine the recommendations made. I presume it will come forward with ways by which we can improve future capital projects. I have a number of questions. I hope we will have an opportunity to discuss the PwC report. I accept that the various committees will discuss it in the coming weeks, but it is important that Opposition spokespersons such as Deputies Cowen and Burton and I have an opportunity to sit down with the Minister and some officials to go through some of the issues raised. Fianna Fáil introduced legislation to strengthen the tendering, contracts and procurement process. We also introduced legislation. Rather than the Government automatically knocking back the proposals, it would be an ideal opportunity for us to meet the Minister and his officials to see if there were some good ideas. We all have a responsibility in that regard, not just the Government. With any other Deputy, I could be in government in the morning. We must ensure the processes and procedures we put in place will serve us well in the next 20 years and the lifetime of the national development plan. I urge the Minister to consider arranging such a meeting to examine the proposals each of us has to make and come to an agreement on how best to proceed to ensure we will not see another major overrun. That would be a good starting point.

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