Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Just to reiterate some of the points I made earlier, what we are doing is looking at changes that can be made in the public spending code that build on the experiences we have had in respect of the national children's hospital and the national broadband plan. The cost relating to the national children's hospital was got clearly wrong and the length of time involved in delivering a project of that scale was got wrong too.

I have acknowledged this in many debates in this House. In regard to the national broadband plan, the learnings are different. The national broadband plan went through the kind of appraisal and focus that it should do, and the Government made the decision in regard to going ahead with that project conscious of the risks and of the higher costs. We then shared that with the Oireachtas and I believe we are going to have a heightened debate about that in the coming weeks.

In regard to what we are doing to address issues like this in the future, it is why we are revising the public spending code and why we have a capital tracker that lays out where different projects stand. While the Deputy is correct to point out two big projects in which the cost of delivery went wrong and there was significant public concern, we have many different projects across the country, from primary care, to schools, to higher and further education and to roads, which are on time and on budget, and where different agencies are able to deliver big projects on track and in the way the Government expects.

See this speech in context