Results 10,141-10,160 of 40,897 for speaker:Simon Coveney
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Apr 2019)
Simon Coveney: The issue is what we do about it now. I do not believe, having read this report, that we can reduce the cost of building a national children's hospital by retendering at this stage. I know Deputy Wallace has been consistent in contesting that and I respect his view. PwC specifically tries to deal with this issue in the report. When the Deputy tells me that when we pay money for...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Apr 2019)
Simon Coveney: When PwC makes a clear recommendation that retendering would likely see an increase in cost or perhaps the hospital not being built at all, we have to take note and that is what we are doing. The Government is not going to shy away from the other failings that are clearly pointed to in this report.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Apr 2019)
Simon Coveney: We will change procedures on the back of this in respect of the mistakes that were made, primarily around the underestimation of cost. As someone who has been involved in the building industry, Deputy Wallace will understand the failings that happened there. There should have been red flags earlier in this process to highlight the fact that there were clear failings in the estimate of costs.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Apr 2019)
Simon Coveney: The Government has been clear. The Minister for Finance and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Donohoe and the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, have said repeatedly that the Government takes responsibility for this underestimate and for the cost increase of this project. There have been people who have felt the need to step aside because of accountability. The chairman...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Apr 2019)
Simon Coveney: With respect, the whole point of getting PwC to do the report that is now being published is to understand fully what happened here and who was at fault so that we can have accountability, we can learn lessons from it and we can put structures in place to ensure-----
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Apr 2019)
Simon Coveney: -----that this kind of underestimate does not happen again in projects such as this.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Apr 2019)
Simon Coveney: Of course it is. The money has not been spent yet. Is anybody in this House seriously suggesting that we can build a hospital of this scale and complexity for less than what is currently estimated?
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Apr 2019)
Simon Coveney: No, they are not.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Apr 2019)
Simon Coveney: The issue is around how we learn lessons from a process that was flawed in getting us this far while at the same time building a hospital for children in Ireland. That is what we are doing and we have been open about that. We have asked PwC to put a detailed report together so we can act on the recommendations of that. It has done that independently and without fear or favour. Within a...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Apr 2019)
Simon Coveney: -----will bring a plan to implement those recommendations and they will be accountable to this House on that plan.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Apr 2019)
Simon Coveney: The Government has not taken a hard or a soft line on this. The Government has largely stayed out of this dispute. It is a dispute between the union concerned and the HSE. The Government's policy on trade unions and management is, where possible, to try to consolidate trade union representation to make it as structured and as functional as possible. There is a dispute here that we all...
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Apr 2019)
Simon Coveney: The Minister for Health is before a committee as we speak answering questions on whatever people want to ask him. Senior Ministers have not gone missing. I do not have the detail on the May 2017 letter the Deputy refers to but I can get that for him. I think the public does want to understand what went wrong here. From my initial reading of this report the explanation is pretty clear....
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Apr 2019)
Simon Coveney: There were not and we need to learn lessons from that.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Apr 2019)
Simon Coveney: Both Ministers will be coming to Cabinet within a month and I presume will come to this House too-----
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Apr 2019)
Simon Coveney: -----with an implementation plan for all of the recommendations of this report. That is what Government does, it learns lessons.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Apr 2019)
Simon Coveney: It is not true to say that the mistakes that were made in this project have been repeated over and over with other projects. The Deputy is trying to link it with other projects that he does not even know the detail of in respect of the national broadband plan, for example.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Apr 2019)
Simon Coveney: I do not know what the final cost is so I do not know how the Deputy does-----
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Apr 2019)
Simon Coveney: -----because there has not been a Government decision on it.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Apr 2019)
Simon Coveney: The process has not concluded but the Opposition is already trying to turn it into a political football.
- Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions (10 Apr 2019)
Simon Coveney: If we consider projects that have been completed-----