Results 20,601-20,620 of 46,575 for speaker:Simon Harris

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: 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 counted approximately four questions there. No matter what I said yesterday the Deputy was not going to be satisfied with the apology because she had decided her position on this. That is okay because that is the style of her party, which is not hearing what people have to say before deciding the action to be taken. It is a parliamentary stunt her party uses regularly. The Deputy's...

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

Simon Harris: ------identified through the guaranteed maximum price, GMP, figures.

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: Not by me.

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

Simon Harris: I do not want to say anything on the record of this House that in any way impedes the accountability piece that has to be discharged by PwC. I am certainly happy to share with the House all of the information I have, and I have been sharing documentation. The Mazars report makes clear, as the Deputy correctly outlined, that a number of things did not go right in regard to design, as listed...

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

Simon Harris: I will have to get those details for the Deputy. I will get them for him before the end of this debate.

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

Simon Harris: Yes, it is, but if we are doing so on an evidential basis or if the PwC report finds, as the Deputy and I have discussed at great length throughout nine hours of questioning at the health committee over two days, it is possible to do so without doing what the Deputy and I, and the House, do not want to do, which is to reduce the clinical benefit of it. We could reduce costs easily by...

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

Simon Harris: The benefit of telling the truth is no matter how many times one is asked the same question, the answer will be the same. I received five memorandums in respect of this. I published all of them, despite the fact the health committee only asked for one of them, which was the one from 27 August. That is the extent of the briefing that I received on this. I was, as the Deputy will see from...