Results 8,621-8,640 of 12,773 for speaker:Louise O'Reilly

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children's Hospital: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Jan 2019)

Louise O'Reilly: I am sorry to cut across Ms Conroy but she must appreciate that a phrase such as "there were some issues relating to the cost" is what one says when one goes to the supermarket and accidentally buys a little more than one had intended. One has spent an extra five or tenner, but we are talking about €1 billion. There were slightly more than issues.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children's Hospital: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Jan 2019)

Louise O'Reilly: Can Mr. Pollock repeat that? The board was reporting to the HSE until 2019 that this was-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children's Hospital: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Jan 2019)

Louise O'Reilly: Is it the HSE's design team or the hospital's design team?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children's Hospital: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Jan 2019)

Louise O'Reilly: The development board's design team up until very recently, in the last number of days, was reporting that this project was going to be on budget. Several budgets were mentioned. Is it the Taoiseach's budget, when he was Minister for Health, of €650 million or some other budget? Clearly, the board was not adhering to any budget. Let us be honest. What budget is it that the board...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children's Hospital: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Jan 2019)

Louise O'Reilly: It is lost on me that this remained the right option. According to the Department's statement, the Government has approved the commissioning of three new reports. One report in particular identifies the existing oversight arrangement between the Department of Health, the HSE and the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board. Last week at the committee, we had extensive discussions...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children's Hospital: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Jan 2019)

Louise O'Reilly: Does Ms Conroy understand why that is a problem? She is telling us the Department is going to commission three more reports but here we are a couple of years after a report was commissioned and paid for and presumably made recommendations on a project of this nature and size and Ms Conroy is not aware of that report-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children's Hospital: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Jan 2019)

Louise O'Reilly: -----so I am saying to her that the Department commissioning three more reports when reports have already been commissioned and there appears to have been no learning from those.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children's Hospital: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Jan 2019)

Louise O'Reilly: No it was done by MCA Architects.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children's Hospital: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Jan 2019)

Louise O'Reilly: It is before the time of a lot of people but when a project of this nature is being embarked upon, I would have thought that a very simple thing to do would be to amass whatever knowledge was there already. I am making the point that three more reports are being commissioned and paid for. I do not know how much they will cost but I assume that Ms Conroy will be in a position to tell us how...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children's Hospital: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Jan 2019)

Louise O'Reilly: Mr. Sullivan should be aware that we are all aware of the scale of what we are talking about today.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children's Hospital: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Jan 2019)

Louise O'Reilly: As we sit here today, are there questions in Mr. Sullivan's mind about the ability of the board to oversee phase B that he requires assurance on and that he is hoping that PwC will give him assurance on for €450,000?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children's Hospital: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Jan 2019)

Louise O'Reilly: The board itself has concerns about the oversight and Mr. Sullivan shares those concerns.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children's Hospital: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Jan 2019)

Louise O'Reilly: I am talking about the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board, so we can start with that board.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children's Hospital: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Jan 2019)

Louise O'Reilly: It has an issue with its capacity to exercise oversight.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children's Hospital: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Jan 2019)

Louise O'Reilly: Mr. Sullivan also knows that those sorts of learnings come under the heading of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted because this money has been spent now.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children's Hospital: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Jan 2019)

Louise O'Reilly: But it has been committed.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children's Hospital: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Jan 2019)

Louise O'Reilly: Okay. The shorthand for that is a cost overrun, I suppose. Last week we were advised that €90 million of the overrun will be incurred due to the project running over time by nine months. Every month it runs over, that is a cost of €10 million which, for the avoidance of any doubt, is €320,000 a day. That may seem like a small amount given the billions we are talking...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children's Hospital: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Jan 2019)

Louise O'Reilly: Yes. What are the funding implications if this project runs over?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children's Hospital: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Jan 2019)

Louise O'Reilly: Mr. Pollock will appreciate that is not much comfort in the context of a massive, catastrophic overrun on spending, which we know will have implications for other projects at a time when capacity within our health service is critically low. Mr. Pollock will be aware of that and that the knock-on consequences of this overrun will be paid for by other local projects. I hope I will have an...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children's Hospital: Discussion (Resumed) (23 Jan 2019)

Louise O'Reilly: That has to be understood in the context-----