Results 2,261-2,280 of 5,948 for speaker:Paul McAuliffe
- Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2020 (16 Jun 2022)
Paul McAuliffe: The figures around this project are always eye-watering-----
- Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2020 (16 Jun 2022)
Paul McAuliffe: -----but that figure alone - there are capital projects that Mr. Tierney deals with that are €51 million all on their own.
- Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2020 (16 Jun 2022)
Paul McAuliffe: That is the figure the board is expecting. The question then is how did we get to that point. The figure inserted into the contract was 4%. How did the board arrive at that figure?
- Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2020 (16 Jun 2022)
Paul McAuliffe: Was the contractor-----
- Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2020 (16 Jun 2022)
Paul McAuliffe: -----a source of information when the board was sourcing that figure or did the board independently source it?
- Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2020 (16 Jun 2022)
Paul McAuliffe: The buck seems to have been passed to Mr. Devine, so why do I not ask him?
- Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2020 (16 Jun 2022)
Paul McAuliffe: All right.
- Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2020 (16 Jun 2022)
Paul McAuliffe: And it would be paid 100% by the State. There was no sharing of that risk above the 4%.
- Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2020 (16 Jun 2022)
Paul McAuliffe: I am conscious of this from my experience on the housing committee. Inflation is having an impact on a whole range of areas, so I accept it is a factor the board must deal with. My question is, could it have been predicted when the contract was set at 4% that the State would be 100% liable for everything above 4%? Was that a reasonable burden to put on the State?
- Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2020 (16 Jun 2022)
Paul McAuliffe: But the contract was set by the board.
- Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2020 (16 Jun 2022)
Paul McAuliffe: So my question to the board is whether that was a reasonable figure to pick and whether it was reasonable that the State would be liable for everything above that.
- Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2020 (16 Jun 2022)
Paul McAuliffe: Given it was an unlikely event that it would go to such a high figure-----
- Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2020 (16 Jun 2022)
Paul McAuliffe: I accept that. All the more reason then that would not have resulted in significantly increased costs, had the board put something into that initial contract, because the contractor would have made the same calculation the board did that it was unlikely to be as high as 10%. There should have been some mechanism in the contract that protected the State from paying 100% of that figure above...
- Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2020 (16 Jun 2022)
Paul McAuliffe: Of course it is.
- Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2020 (16 Jun 2022)
Paul McAuliffe: But Mr. Gunning, you are dealing with the contract as it is now, but you also set the contract.
- Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2020 (16 Jun 2022)
Paul McAuliffe: Which included the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board.
- Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2020 (16 Jun 2022)
Paul McAuliffe: The number we are looking at is €51 million. That could go higher.
- Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2020 (16 Jun 2022)
Paul McAuliffe: I have done some very rudimentary calculations here. It could go as high as €100 million. This is a very significant risk to the overall cost of the project. It is not a small percentage we are talking about here.
- Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2020 (16 Jun 2022)
Paul McAuliffe: I am familiar with it, yes. Turning to Mr. Tierney, the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath published the inflation co-operation framework in early May to ensure the viability of projects. I think everybody would say the national children's hospital is beyond that point of viability. It is unlikely the contractor would walk away from the entire project at this time. The question is on how...
- Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2020 (16 Jun 2022)
Paul McAuliffe: I think I am out of time.