David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Last week, the State's chief procurement officer resigned from the development board of the national children's hospital. It is being reported that he resigned over the spiralling costs of the project. That is what is being reported but it does not necessarily mean that it is the case. We do, however, need to get to the bottom of why he resigned. It is a big deal and it does matter. We deserve to know exactly the reasons or motivation behind that resignation.

The cost of construction for the project has increased from an initial budget of €650 million to almost €2 billion today. The figures keep going up and up and taxpayers are the ones who will have to foot the bill. This is a staggering increase of costs in such a short period. It shows that the entire design of this process was fatally flawed from the start. Last January, an Taoiseach had the gall to blame the cost overrun at the national children's hospital on sprinklers. It would be laughable were it not so serious.

The PwC report into the cost overrun at the national children's hospital is lengthy, detailed and comprehensive. It clearly shows that this process was flawed and hamstrung from the beginning. It shows mistakes and failures at every turn. It illustrates how the Government pursued a risky and untested two-stage procurement strategy. This strategy was known to have grave risks of cost escalation. The purpose of the strategy it seems was to get the project finished quickly to provide a photo opportunity for the Government. The report highlights significant issues with governance and oversight and it points to the serious matter of non-compliance with the public spending code. That alone required immediate Government investigation, but of course nothing has been, or will be, done - not by this Government in any event.

The Government has proven time and time again to be unable to navigate this project and is responsible for what may turn out to be a €1.35 billion cost overrun. Can one imagine how that money might be spent in providing home care packages to people or for the many capital projects in acute hospitals up and down the State that are in a queue and need to be funded. Yet, there is a €1.35 billion overrun in respect of this single project.

It is incredible that PwC was able to conclude that 65% of the overrun was a result of "underestimation" and issues that it stated "should have been identified". It did not have to be this way. This is purely down to bad project design, a desire for speed, and a horrendous lack of proper oversight. The Committee of Public Accounts has examined this a number of times and had accounting officers and officials before the committee, including the individual we mentioned earlier who has resigned since. The committee shines a light on public procurement because we believe that it is important to make sure we look at where lessons can be learned and savings made.

Health plans across the State were put under review because of the rising cost of the national children's hospital. The Minister would reject that any project was cancelled or faced with delays, but the facts say something else. I commended him on the approach he took with Oireachtas Members from the south east and Waterford regarding a number of health projects, one of which relates to the second catheter lab. We had a meeting more than a year ago when this project was signed off. It took four months for the HSE estates department to issue the approval letter for the regional HSE estates department to progress the project. When I challenged the head of the HSE estates department at the committee, he stated that it was because the organisation was looking at all of the projects in the context of the overspend on the national children's hospital. There is an example of one project that faced some delay of a couple of months.

Overruns on this scale are not victimless. Huge amounts of money are involved. I appeal to the Minister to learn the lessons. We all want this project to proceed and for the hospital to be built. That is a given. It needs to be done for children across the State. The days of looking at what the alternatives could have been and should have been are well past. We need this project delivered as quickly as possible. We need to learn very serious lessons about how we do public procurement when it comes to projects of this scale. The State cannot afford to see a project like this happen again with such significant cost overruns and the consequences this has for citizens.

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