Results 7,061-7,080 of 20,763 for speaker:Alan Kelly

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

Alan Kelly: Mr. Breslin cannot guarantee that the project will come in under €2 billion and that an exercise is being carried out to see how much scope creep or cost creep there will be again. In the light of from where we have come and given that the fit-out and other aspects of the project have increased the cost to €1.73 billion, as an occasional betting man I do not think the project...

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

Alan Kelly: I appreciate that and the Department is right to do that exercise. For the public and members of the committee who are not members of the Joint Committee on Health - I am the only person present who is a member of both committees - it is new information that not only do we have a project which is at €1.433 billion, but also that when it is fitted out, it will be €1.7 billion...

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

Alan Kelly: Some €450,000.

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

Alan Kelly: What I just said was that we started off with a situation where we were looking at a cost of €983 million. In four months, it has gone to a case where we cannot guarantee the cost will be under €2 billion. The cost then went to €1.433 billion. Due to the additional cost of fitting it out that Mr. Breslin has outlined, the cost has increased to €1.7 billion....

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

Alan Kelly: I understand that.

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

Alan Kelly: That increase has knock-on effects as regards extra costs. The Department would not be undertaking a study if Mr. Breslin was confident that that was not the case.

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

Alan Kelly: I understand what Mr. Breslin is saying. However, information on the scope, ancillary costs and all of that is not available to the public. We are now in the situation where the Government, through the Department, will get a document which will go through everything relating to the escalating costs. I will lay a bet that it will come in at a figure well above €1.7 billion.

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

Alan Kelly: I am talking about the cost of the project. The figure will come in at well in excess of €1.7 billion. I believe that this project will go to the €2 billion mark and I do not hear Mr. Breslin saying it will not. In fairness, I do not believe he is in a position to do that. The public has lost confidence in how we as a country administer large projects such as this. People...

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

Alan Kelly: When will that be completed?

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

Alan Kelly: I know Mr. Curran has to be careful in what he says and I do not want to put him under pressure. Incidentally, €50 million is a small amount in the context of what the Department will have to cancel and profile. Will he list one or two projects that he knows will not proceed in accordance with the intended timescales?

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

Alan Kelly: Is everything going ahead as normal?

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

Alan Kelly: Mr. Curran is not saying much, to be fair. He has to be open here. Projects will not go ahead and the Department must have taken decisions. It would look fairly inefficient if decisions were not being made about projects. Public announcements have to be made and contracts have to be signed.

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

Alan Kelly: I was asking Mr. Curran a question. I will ask Mr. Breslin a question when I want to do so.

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

Alan Kelly: I will make it easy for Mr. Curran. There has been an announcement of a new unit for University Hospital Limerick, which has the most overcrowding in Ireland. I have not seen anything on budget lines about where that money is coming from. Is that project currently in the capital programme?

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

Alan Kelly: Is it currently in the capital programme? It is a "Yes" or "No" answer.

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

Alan Kelly: The Minister announced it last year. He said the money was there. Is it currently in the capital programme? I only picked one but I could have picked ten.

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

Alan Kelly: Will Mr. Curran confirm the project is in the capital programme? If it is not, he should just say so.

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

Alan Kelly: I think I have proved my point. Over the last period, I have gone through all the steering group minutes from the children's hospital project steering group. Mr. Dean Sullivan chairs the steering group. I have many questions on that. My first question is for Mr. Breslin because it does not relate to Mr. Sullivan's role. Why was somebody from the Department of Public Expenditure and...

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

Alan Kelly: Was that a weakness, in hindsight?

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

Alan Kelly: This is one of the largest projects in the State.