Results 1,681-1,700 of 3,444 for speaker:Shane Cassells

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (31 Jan 2019)

Shane Cassells: Yes. It is quite amazing. Mr. Breslin referred to table 3 in terms of the comparison of the business case versus the guaranteed maximum price. The difference there, I think, comes in at 40%. That is surely a misleading of this committee, or indeed any other committee, when we see that that is quite frankly not the case.

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (31 Jan 2019)

Shane Cassells: Anyone can accept a small change in price, but this is a business case that was coming in at €637 million and in respect of which the groundworks were actually going to come in on price, and then there was more than a doubling of the construction costs. This is simply quite unfathomable to the rest of the public. I ask the witnesses to talk to me about the €346 million that...

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (31 Jan 2019)

Shane Cassells: No. This is not a political charge.

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (31 Jan 2019)

Shane Cassells: I do not care about the man's politics, but he went on the "Six One" news and told the people €650 million-----

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (31 Jan 2019)

Shane Cassells: He was informed by somebody, though. He did not dream the figure up.

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (31 Jan 2019)

Shane Cassells: Okay. Again, I am asking how the then Minister could get that so wrong, how he could tell the people of Ireland that that was the price, all in. It is not a political charge.

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (31 Jan 2019)

Shane Cassells: The Minister only makes a comment based on the professional advice from the board, the Secretary General and the other people to whom he is listening. He takes the information from them. I am asking the people who provided the information how a Minister can be given information that then turns out to be so categorically wrong.

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (31 Jan 2019)

Shane Cassells: Would the successful bidder know-----

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (31 Jan 2019)

Shane Cassells: Yes, please, Mr. Costello.

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (31 Jan 2019)

Shane Cassells: I am glad Mr. Costello has come in because I note his long professional career in this country. From his time dealing with big projects in his professional life in this country - and I am aware of some of the iconic projects in which he has been involved, such as Croke Park - has he ever dealt with any project in respect of which the build cost has gone up by the magnitude we see here?

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (31 Jan 2019)

Shane Cassells: No. I appreciate that. I am just asking-----

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (31 Jan 2019)

Shane Cassells: I am not interested in what the Brits are at.

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (31 Jan 2019)

Shane Cassells: Mr. Costello has had some big ones. People here have admitted concern and worry. A review that was initiated will cost a significant amount but officials are explaining everything away by reference to complexity, as if we were not complex creatures and as if the project were not complex. We are asked to accept the complexity so we can move on but that does not tally. That is what people...

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (31 Jan 2019)

Shane Cassells: I am referring to how it would have been handled. There is anger over the view that, because public money is involved, the increase is acceptable. If one had gone to Liam Mulvihill of the GAA and told him that if he wanted a roof on the Hogan Stand, the price would have to go up by €500 million, the GAA would have marched people off the site. Can Mr. Costello understand that?

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (31 Jan 2019)

Shane Cassells: The results-----

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (31 Jan 2019)

Shane Cassells: The results are not the same. There was a reference to me making political charges. There may be a basis in terms of why statements are being made and in terms of what the members of committees and, indeed, the Dáil had been told. I refer to the fact that our colleague, Deputy Barry Cowen, asked in the Dáil the Minister for Health on 18 September last the budgeted cost of the...

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (31 Jan 2019)

Shane Cassells: Am I getting it right?

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (31 Jan 2019)

Shane Cassells: Is Mr. Breslin telling me that at the time of the question in September, he was not aware that the cost was spiralling towards €1.5 billion?

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (31 Jan 2019)

Shane Cassells: "Emerging trends". Please do not words like that.

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (31 Jan 2019)

Shane Cassells: Excuse me. Was Mr. Breslin aware that cost was heading towards €1.5 billion in September? The answer requires a "Yes" or "No".