Results 61-80 of 1,037,449 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Ciarán Cuffe OR speaker:Hildegarde Naughton OR speaker:Catherine Murphy OR speaker:Cormac Devlin) in 'Committee meetings'

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)

Cormac Devlin: No, I appreciate that.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)

Cormac Devlin: I will explain what I am trying to say. When we are sitting here at the Committee of Public Accounts in February 2025, Mr. Gunning might come before us again to say that BAM has now told the board that it will be June 2025 or December 2025 before this is substantially complete. It does not matter when or what year for the purposes of the point I am making. Is Mr. Gunning really telling us...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)

Cormac Devlin: That is the crux of the position. I know.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)

Cormac Devlin: In an ideal world, it would be someone from BAM sitting in Mr. Gunning’s seat. I am sure Mr. Gunning would love if someone from BAM were sitting in his seat, just as we would prefer to have someone from BAM in here. From what I am hearing - we also heard this at our previous engagement, as colleagues said earlier - the number of staff who have been allocated to this project has...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)

Cormac Devlin: I appreciate that but the costs when this hospital was first mooted are unrecognisable from what they are today. I understand that there are physical changes - we saw this when we were on site - and I accept that needs in the design have changed as well. Mr. Devine made the point earlier about the 23,000 new drawings and so on. I appreciate that things change. Anyone who has been involved...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)

Cormac Devlin: We wish you well with that. We hope not to be in this position again with further increases. I have another question for Mr. Gunning. His opening statement referred to the fact that the board is co-ordinating the 52-bedroom Ronald McDonald House. How does that fit into the project? It is obviously a not-for-profit building and organisation. It is not incorporated into the actual physical...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)

Cormac Devlin: It is not as big as some of the others.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)

Cormac Devlin: Am I right in saying that there is underground connectivity between the hospital and the house itself?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)

Cormac Devlin: Would I also be right in saying that there are approximately 600 car parking spaces allocated at the children’s hospital and the families in those 52 units will be able to avail of car parking spaces?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)

Cormac Devlin: Yes and it is essential. I am aware of the house and of the necessity of those facilities but I just wanted to see how it linked in. Mr. Gunning has explained that BAM did the underground work, which would tie in the State but the State has also invested €18 million or thereabouts in the project.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)

Cormac Devlin: From the perspective of the public accounts committee, there is a lot more in this, as I am sure the development board can appreciate. A number of notes have been requested for today and going forward. I would suggest that the committee engages again with the development board, CHI and the Department of Health in the next couple of months. It is important to do that given where the project...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)

Cormac Devlin: That is another issue all together.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: I ask for the figure in respect of the liquidated damages.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Does Mr. Gunning have a rolling figure for that?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Was that included in the contingency or headroom in the final contract?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: Could the legal row cost more than the amount that is collected?

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: No, it certainly would not.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: We are talking about the 2022 accounts. It is now 2024, not that we should toast that fact. Note 2 in the report by the Comptroller and Auditor General states that at the end of 2022, the amount involved was €1.24 billion. Note 8 indicates further capital commitments of €217 million. We know that €40 million was allocated to get the board through that Christmas. Why...

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: The committee deals with historical figures. When those historical figures have cobwebs on them, it makes matters way more difficult. This is particularly the case for this project because we could not determine whether or not it was going in the way it should have gone. We knew there was slippage all over the place. I will just say how unsatisfactory that was.

Public Accounts Committee: Financial Statements 2022: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (30 May 2024)

Catherine Murphy: On the contract, because tendering is a very expensive process, contractors will only engage if they think they have a fighting chance of winning. There may be a contractor, for example, that went in low and made up the balance in claims. If that was the profile of how a contractor was conducting things, is that considered in the context of tendering for further projects? Is there any...