David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is no good to the people of the State who are still funding the hospital or to the children who need it. Does the Minister accept that the levers for holding the contractor to account do not exist? All the levers he has mentioned have been used before and clearly do not work. Does he accept that that has to do with flaws in the contract? Despite all of the tough talk and Ministers sticking their chests out and saying they will take on the contractor, we are no closer to the hospital being built than we were this time last year. I have had similar exchanges with the Minister in this Chamber and we have had debates at the Oireachtas health committee. No one can tell us when the hospital will be built and open. All the while, we have a blame game, with the contractor blaming the board and the board blaming the contractor. We go around in circles and we make no progress. There has to be political accountability as well as a holding of the contractor to account. For all the Minister’s talk of levers, brakes and other measures to put pressure on the contractor, they are not working. Is the problem that they do not actually exist and that the State is powerless to hold the contractor to account, all the while writing cheques even though children are waiting for the hospital to be built?

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