Results 5,941-5,960 of 34,872 for speaker:Seán Fleming

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (16 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: Is Mr. Barry saying that the PwC is kind of blaming the board rather than the design team? Is Mr. Barry saying the board does not have enough commercial experience within the board and it needs to beef up? I think the board needs to be strengthened and the PwC stated it needs to be strengthened.

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (16 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: I would compare this with motorway projects that always cost more than the original quote, and Mr. Barry knows this. I know eventually that the authority got this-----

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (16 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: -----more right. Mr. Barry is saying the fact is the project was always going to cost €1.7 billion or whatever the figure is. The fact that nobody realised that, "Ah, sure".

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (16 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: Who gave the original figure to the Minister and the Oireachtas of €700 million or whatever the figure was? In the PwC's report the original budget was €790 million and then the figure increased to €983 million in April 2017.

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (16 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: That is the figure of €983 million in April 2017, which is on the first page of the PwC report.

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (16 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: Okay. So we came in with our tender in April 2017. The following year, not much before the end of 2018, the figure increased by €450 million, which is a 50% increase in 18 months. In April 2017 the figure was €983 million but in December, at the end of this report or at the end of the gross maximum price in November, which was 16 months later, the figure had increased by 50%....

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (16 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: No.

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (16 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: Yes.

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (16 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: The board still received bad advice. Even if the outcome was always going to be always the outcome, it was still bad advice.

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (16 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: No.

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (16 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: Yes, and that is my question. Why would the board continue to work with the company for the next couple of years?

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (16 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: Yes.

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (16 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: And with BAM. Have we got ourselves so badly caught up in contracts that we cannot get away from bad advice?

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (16 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: So it is here, regardless of whether we like it. What changes has it made in its organisation to give Mr. Barry a level of confidence that he clearly has not had in its work up to now.

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (16 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: At this stage.

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (16 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: However, six months or more have gone by.

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (16 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: I will put the blunt question, which is not unreasonable to ask. Should the entire board stand down? I am not saying that the project should be stopped but I must ask whether we have the right structure in place. We have the hospital board, steering committees, the HSE, the Department of Health, the Minister and then the Government. That is six steps down the line that responsibility is...

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (16 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: It is a valid question.

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (16 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: I am not making a recommendation, I am just posing a valid question

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: Financial Statements 2017 (Resumed) (16 May 2019)

Seán Fleming: Okay. This is about the fourth dilemma in which we have found ourselves at this stage. We are stuck where we are stuck. Given that all that is happening and that it took quite a period to do the maximum price guarantee-----