Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is important to underline what my role is as Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform in capital budgets. I am responsible for setting the overall multi-annual capital expenditure ceilings for each ministerial Vote group as set out in the national development plan, NDP, and Project Ireland 2040. We are also responsible for maintaining the national frameworks that Departments operate in to ensure appropriate accounting for, and value for money in, public expenditure, for example, under the public spending code. Individual Ministers and the relevant Accounting Officers retain direct line responsibility for individual projects.

Regarding the national children's hospital, as a result of the lessons from that project and the PwC review into the escalation of costs therein, a number of key reforms that I have referenced have been put in place. I am pleased that those reforms are being put into practice in the assessment of major capital projects under the NDP.

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