Results 25,941-25,960 of 46,267 for speaker:Simon Harris

National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: Read the transcript. The Deputy said that the project had already overrun by €0.5 billion. The project has not overrun its budget.

National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: I am answering the question. The project is projected to overrun by €450 million, of which €320 million is funding that will come from the Exchequer. The Deputy asked why I did not tell the Minister for Finance, which ignores the fact there was contact at official level, as is appropriate, between my Department and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, making people...

National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: If the Deputy would like to follow the facts on this issue, I took a decision to reappoint the board in July 2018, as the Deputy rightly said. In my letter of reappointment, I specifically referenced the fact that in this House we would be passing the Children's Health Ireland legislation, which would give me, as Minister, powers as to replacing that board, should I decide to do so. The...

National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: I will make two points. First, the Deputy continues to attack the credibility of people in this House who are not here to defend themselves, which is not a new tactic in relation to the Deputy. A number of months ago the Deputy was moving motions of no confidence in Tony O'Brien and today on Leaders' Question he was quoted as a source of great authority on Leaders' Questions. Maybe she...

National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: Saying that the buck stops with the Minister is just a great piece of rhetoric. I know where the buck stops with me in political accountability for the decisions I make. I stand by that and I will always do so. We will deliver this hospital. Where the buck stops in terns of placing contracts, legally, under statutory instrument, is with the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board....

National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: The assessment of the performance of contracts is a matter for the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board, funnily enough, and not me and the Deputy on the floor of the Dáil. That is not what we do. We do not discuss construction companies on the floor of the Dáil.

National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: I enjoy answering questions but it is nice to get a chance to answer the questions. I am not going to come in here and comment on the performance of companies in this country. We have laws in regard to procurement and laws in regard to contract, and we have an entity called the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board which places and monitors contracts.

National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: One of the reasons, along with transparency, that I chose to publish all of the memos was that we do not read them in isolation. The Deputy can see a memo came to me on 27 August. Of course, it is important to note that memo was quickly followed by another one on, I think, 7 September, which provides more assurance in regard to how some of those issues are being dealt with. There is also...

National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: I got the memos and I was satisfied by 9 November that a very thorough deliberative process had concluded.

National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: I will take that.

National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform will deal with the question on EU procurement because it falls within his remit. As Deputy Bríd Smith correctly stated, we have already indicated on a number of occasions in reply to parliamentary questions why it was decided to have a two-stage procurement process. PwC will continue to analyse the appropriateness of all of those matters....

National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: No.

National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: I have answered that question. No. the Government's procurement strategy in 2015 was decided and endorsed by the Government's contracts committee on construction and was ultimately-----

National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: Deputy Bríd Smith may not agree with or like the answers but they are-----

National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: Deputy Bríd Smith does not like the answers because she has decided that they are something to do with a construction company which she is going to keep naming on the record of the House, as is her right. I am not actually sure whether it is her right to keep naming companies on the record of the House but that is her choice. I am outlining to her the process the Government went...

National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Wallace. He is one of the few people in the House who can speak with authority on this subject and I thank him for his reasonable points, which I have been noting down furiously. The first point to make about the decision makers and how we got to this process is this: some version of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board has been in place since 2007. That was a...

National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: On the specific services question from the Deputy and the point he raised about it just being a hole in the ground, he said approximately €80 million had been spent on the project but, as I said earlier - and he may not have been in the House - €234.64 million had been spent as at the end of 2018. Far from this project just being a hole in the ground-----

National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: I want to put the answers on the record because there are parents who would like to know how these services will affect their children rather than rhetoric.

National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: Some €235.64 million had been spent by the end of 2018 and far from just being a hole in the ground, part of this hospital facility at Connolly hospital, which I hope the Deputy visits, will open this summer to start serving our children. The X-ray facilities were delivered to that facility only this week.

National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)

Simon Harris: They were very good; they were very forensic. The NPHDB has the legal responsibility to sign and issue contracts. That is the answer to the first question. On the second question, parts one and two, PwC was chosen because it was drawn off a framework that the HSE has in place. The HSE appointed it. Regarding the cost of the report, there is a daily rate for that company so that is the...