Results 14,101-14,120 of 33,025 for speaker:Catherine Connolly

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Catherine Connolly: Am I distracting Mr. Watt from something more important?

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Catherine Connolly: Good. In 2015, the new hospital board appeared before this committee prior to my becoming a member of it. As a result of previous issues relating to the original project, the new board appeared before this committee. Absolute assurances were given to the committee that the board had learned its lessons, governance was in place and no issues would arise. In the same way that Mr. Watt told...

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Catherine Connolly: Some €35 million was written off. I do not expect Mr. Watt to address that issue but I expect him to be familiar with it and to know what was learned from it. The board provided assurances. Does Mr. Watt agree that its members were picked for their expertise? Okay. I regret that Mr. Quinn is not appearing before the committee today but that was the decision of the Department. I...

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Catherine Connolly: The National Paediatric Hospital Development Board

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Catherine Connolly: That is okay.

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Catherine Connolly: I understand that. I highlight those minutes to show Mr. Watt that questions are being raised by the board about its design and other teams that were procured for their expertise under the new Government's model at great cost. Private contractors were brought in because of their expertise. There are ongoing issues relating to the new model. I wish to move to the issues explored by Deputy...

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Catherine Connolly: Following on from the questions asked by Deputy Kelly, why did the meeting not take place? I am referring to 17 October. Deputy Kelly's time ran out before he could go back that far. If we had more time-----

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Catherine Connolly: The meeting took place on 19 or 21 November------

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Catherine Connolly: ------and at that meeting the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform got the documentation.

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Catherine Connolly: This email shows that the Department of Health was desperately trying to contact Mr. Watt's Department to inform it that there were issues in regard to costs.

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Catherine Connolly: Did Mr. Watt hear my question?

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Catherine Connolly: Am I painting this wrong when I say that the Department of Health was desperately trying to contact his office and making reference to a meeting with officials of his Department a few weeks previously regarding cost issues arising?

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Catherine Connolly: The official did so eventually.

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Catherine Connolly: That is correct. An email of 20 November from Mr. David Moloney offers thanks for material provided and continues, "As you know in the past we voiced serious concerns in relation to the governance of the Children's Hospital project, and were assured that the arrangements in place were sufficiently robust." The Department is highlighting the fact that it had concerns regarding governance....

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Catherine Connolly: The Department did so eventually. I saw that.

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Catherine Connolly: I have heard that about four times. I will leave it for now. That is Mr. Watt's answer.

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Catherine Connolly: I have shown that there was previous contact with Mr. O'Brien at a minimum. Is the two-stage process now gone? Has the Department decided to do away with it or did I misunderstand Mr. Watt's opening statement?

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Catherine Connolly: I welcome those changes and what Mr. Watt is saying. My difficulty is that throughout all of this documentation which I have read there is constant reassurance that the two-stage process was the way to go.

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Catherine Connolly: It avoided confrontation, litigation and extra costs but here we are today. One of the notes from the Department suggests that we may be looking at a project cost of €2 billion. That is according to departmental emails. The two-stage process, which was allowed, did none of those things. It did not avoid litigation, did it?

Public Accounts Committee: Oversight and Implementation of Capital Projects and the Role of Public Officials on State Boards: Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the Office of Government Procurement (7 Mar 2019)

Catherine Connolly: Clearly it did not work out and the cost went from something of the order €650 million-----