Results 21-40 of 1,047,490 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Tom Kitt OR speaker:Denis Naughten OR speaker:Brian Stanley OR speaker:Catherine Murphy) in 'Committee meetings'
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)
Catherine Murphy: Will the witnesses remind us what the quantum is of the case that is before the court? There is another case where the proceedings have not yet progressed. Is there a value on both of those? It is not an ultimate value that the court will come to but what have they claimed?
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)
Catherine Murphy: If Mr. Gunning would provide it -----
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)
Catherine Murphy: The board has a date from the contractor but it does not have any of the details that substantiate that date for an additional three months. I heard a comment today that it is definitive there will be a three-month delay and that has been said by the Minister. Is the board confident? I do not believe it could be if it has not seen the detail of the additional three months. When does it...
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)
Catherine Murphy: I was going to say that I have a memory of that and it was months before it complied.
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)
Catherine Murphy: Why would you not be cracking the whip at this stage? Why would you not be withholding money? This is absolutely scandalous. An additional €512 million has been put in to complete this hospital. Mr. Gunning is telling us that the things that are adding to the cost are the delays. Why would you not use that lever of withholding payment to more or less get the contractor to crack...
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)
Catherine Murphy: But it is not.
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)
Catherine Murphy: In this contract - not in a contract - because we see it all the time with road projects that if you do close lanes for a particular number of days, there is a cost. That is clearly not in this contract.
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)
Brian Stanley: Thank you, Deputy. I will continue on that. On penalties, is Mr. Gunning telling us that no financial penalties have been levied on the contractor to date? Is that correct?
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)
Brian Stanley: In Mr. Gunning's opening statement, which I read carefully last night again, it seemed to indicate that the board is using all levers. Is that right?
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)
Brian Stanley: We accept that. Those are the tools that they were handed. What the opening statement and what Mr. Gunning has just confirmed to me tells me that the taxpayer, the Government, the State and the board, and Mr. Gunning is the representative of the Oireachtas and the public there, does not have the necessary levers built into this contract to levy penalties against the carry-on that has gone...
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)
Brian Stanley: I think some of us in this room have made this point before. It does. We will come back to inflation in a minute. There has not been one penny. This company has not suffered one penalty of loss because of any of this. Can we establish that is the case? From what Mr. Gunning said, that is a fact.
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)
Brian Stanley: This is outrageous stuff. This is absolutely outrageous stuff. Mr. Quinn is representing the Department here this morning. Was either Mr. Quinn or Mr. McKeith in situ in the Department of Health when this contract was being awarded? Did they have any role in this?
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)
Brian Stanley: Who oversaw this in the Department of Health?
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)
Brian Stanley: I am trying to figure this out. I want to go back a bit and figure out where the buck stops. As some of the members alluded to earlier, there is also a national maternity hospital to be built. I think we all accept that there has been substantial inflation in the wider economy and in the construction sector given forces beyond our control like war and Covid but the point is about us not...
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)
Brian Stanley: I am sure there are legal advisers and technical people who advise the board. Have the board’s legal advisers and other people who are involved in the technicalities of all of this examined and drilled right down to see if there are any instruments or levers, to use Mr. Gunning's word, that can be used to get the contractor to comply at this point?
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)
Brian Stanley: Let me follow on from that. Does that advice indicate that you are not going to be able to keep the contractor to the commitment in respect of February of next year?
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)
Brian Stanley: Let us refer to penalties for the sake of the public.
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)
Brian Stanley: We know that all of those have been missed. Mr. Quinn, who is from the Department, is obviously keeping a close eye on this. I ask for his point of view and for those of the Secretary General and the assistant secretary. Is it his assessment and that of the Department that there has been too much risk and that all the risk in terms of timelines and costs has been loaded onto the board,...
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)
Brian Stanley: Is Mr. Quinn identifying flaws in this?
- Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)
Brian Stanley: Careful notes are therefore being taken of this so that lessons can be learned for future contracts.