Results 361-380 of 685 for speaker:Albert Dolan

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Public Procurement Contracts (27 May 2025)

Albert Dolan: 907. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development if all drawdowns from frameworks by his Department or its agencies from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2024, valued over €25,000 were accompanied by publication of a contract award notice on the eTenders portal as required by Circular 05/2023; and if not, to list any known contracts where such publication did not occur and the...

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board and Children's Health Ireland: Discussion (22 May 2025)

Albert Dolan: The witnesses are all welcome. I appreciate them coming before the committee today. At the outset, I want to frame this conversation. It is vital to say we have a job to do and the witnesses have a job to do, but what we are talking about here today is children’s health, taxpayers’ money and the dedicated staff working day in and day out in our hospitals. I say that to be...

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board and Children's Health Ireland: Discussion (22 May 2025)

Albert Dolan: What is that date?

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board and Children's Health Ireland: Discussion (22 May 2025)

Albert Dolan: Does that date align with what the document received yesterday states?

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board and Children's Health Ireland: Discussion (22 May 2025)

Albert Dolan: Okay. I thank Mr. Gunning. We have been told that the best case scenario is June 2026. Does Ms Nugent believe that, in June 2026, staff and patients will walk through that door?

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board and Children's Health Ireland: Discussion (22 May 2025)

Albert Dolan: If the building has been completed by the contractor in September, Ms Nugent is fully confident that CHI will be through those doors in 2026.

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board and Children's Health Ireland: Discussion (22 May 2025)

Albert Dolan: No, that is perfect. The expenditure in 2023 was almost half of that in 2022. I have a graph here from the Comptroller and Auditor General that shows that, between 2022 and 2023, the expenditure fell by half. Does this reflect that progress fell by half or is this because the board started contesting the claims?

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board and Children's Health Ireland: Discussion (22 May 2025)

Albert Dolan: How does expenditure go from €316 million down to €156 million if we are ramping up progress?

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board and Children's Health Ireland: Discussion (22 May 2025)

Albert Dolan: What is the highest claim value submitted by BAM to date and what was the nature of that claim?

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board and Children's Health Ireland: Discussion (22 May 2025)

Albert Dolan: Are those for aggregated items or are they for one-off expenditures?

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board and Children's Health Ireland: Discussion (22 May 2025)

Albert Dolan: What contractual obligations does BAM have regarding timelines? What punishments can be put in place should those timelines continue to not be met?

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board and Children's Health Ireland: Discussion (22 May 2025)

Albert Dolan: I thank Mr. Gunning. I appreciate that. I sincerely hope the witnesses can go from this meeting and really deliver for the children of Ireland. I want to read something out with regard to CHI. CHI's stated objective is to "improve, promote and protect the health, mental health and well-being of children in a manner that embodies the values of child-centred, compassionate and progressive...

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board and Children's Health Ireland: Discussion (22 May 2025)

Albert Dolan: Okay. In her earlier remarks, Ms Nugent said she wanted staff to feel that they had "psychological safety" around making disclosures. Is there something toxic about the culture in CHI that staff would not feel safe in coming forward with disclosures?

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board and Children's Health Ireland: Discussion (22 May 2025)

Albert Dolan: Obviously, a part of good governance is having those structures in place so that people can confidentially bring forward information to the organisation. I know Ms Nugent will work on that because we can never see something like this happen again. Why did the chair resign from the board? Could we be provided with a copy of the letter of resignation?

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board and Children's Health Ireland: Discussion (22 May 2025)

Albert Dolan: However, Ms Nugent does not know why the chair resigned.

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board and Children's Health Ireland: Discussion (22 May 2025)

Albert Dolan: I just want to link this in. One of the issues the Comptroller and Auditor General found in his audit was that there was material non-compliance in public procurement. Does that material non-compliance in public procurement and the instances he found speak to the wider issue in CHI with the non-CE-marked items getting approved? The reason I ask is that there obviously had to be a supplier...

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board and Children's Health Ireland: Discussion (22 May 2025)

Albert Dolan: I thank Ms Nugent; that is okay. That is an important point because we know there is material non-compliance within it and then we have issues like this that arise. There is a disconnect between the controls and the reality that the patients are experiencing. I hope CHI endeavours to rebuild trust within the organisation because I have serious concerns around the culture. People place...

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board and Children's Health Ireland: Discussion (22 May 2025)

Albert Dolan: I understand that a CEO has massive responsibility and needs to be compensated for the fact that he or she is managing a budget in excess of a couple of hundred million euro. What is the role of this person now as a strategic director?

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board and Children's Health Ireland: Discussion (22 May 2025)

Albert Dolan: I will ask one last question, Chair. Does this person have the same responsibility as when the person was CEO?

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board and Children's Health Ireland: Discussion (22 May 2025)

Albert Dolan: I thank Ms Nugent.