Results 11,881-11,900 of 26,032 for speaker:Kieran O'Donnell

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: National Children's Hospital: Discussion with Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (7 Mar 2019)

Kieran O'Donnell: When the tender went out, was it based on one contractor taking on both phase A and phase B?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: National Children's Hospital: Discussion with Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (7 Mar 2019)

Kieran O'Donnell: When the tender document went out, did it facilitate two separate contractors being appointed?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: National Children's Hospital: Discussion with Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (7 Mar 2019)

Kieran O'Donnell: What I am really saying is that I find that contradictory. In one breath Mr. O'Brien is saying that if one had put out a lump sum final detail plan, one would have had fewer competitors involved, given the scale of the project. Yet, he is also saying that when the committee tendered the project, it made it conditional that only one contractor could be appointed to do both contracts.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: National Children's Hospital: Discussion with Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (7 Mar 2019)

Kieran O'Donnell: No, that is not what I am asking. Did the tender document look for one contractor to be appointed to both phase A and phase B?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: National Children's Hospital: Discussion with Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (7 Mar 2019)

Kieran O'Donnell: Under the terms of the contract-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: National Children's Hospital: Discussion with Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (7 Mar 2019)

Kieran O'Donnell: Would the tender document have allowed two different contractors to be appointed for phase A and phase B?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: National Children's Hospital: Discussion with Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (7 Mar 2019)

Kieran O'Donnell: Therefore, would that not be a point that needs to be addressed? There was a weakness within that particular process because it meant whoever got appointed for phase A and phase B was getting detailed underground but preliminary design overground. That created a weakness in the procurement process.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: National Children's Hospital: Discussion with Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (7 Mar 2019)

Kieran O'Donnell: Why was it not facilitated within the tender document that two separate contractors could be appointed for phase A and phase B?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: National Children's Hospital: Discussion with Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (7 Mar 2019)

Kieran O'Donnell: Would it be fair to say there was an inherent weakness in that procedural process because it meant there was a contractor taking on a contract who, effectively, had to provide detailed pricings in respect of the underground but, for overground, it was very loose and preliminary?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: National Children's Hospital: Discussion with Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (7 Mar 2019)

Kieran O'Donnell: Did the contracts committee or the Department have any role in terms of approving the tender document?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: National Children's Hospital: Discussion with Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (7 Mar 2019)

Kieran O'Donnell: The opening statement at page 8 refers to: Monitoring actual spend against monthly profiles based on information submitted by the Department to DPER's Vote section so as to keep track of aggregate spend by each Department compared to planned spend. DPER does not monitor expenditure at the individual project level. Am I correct that the Department's reporting structure would not have...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: National Children's Hospital: Discussion with Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (7 Mar 2019)

Kieran O'Donnell: Is that not a weakness in the monitoring process?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: National Children's Hospital: Discussion with Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (7 Mar 2019)

Kieran O'Donnell: The national children's hospital and BAM were supposed to have agreed, under the tender document, a guaranteed maximum price by June 2018. That did not happen until six months later, so it was to be ten months and it overran to nearly 16 months. The overrun was of the order of 33% of the cost, or €191 million, exclusive of VAT. As I am assuming VAT is at 13.5%, the gross overrun is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: National Children's Hospital: Discussion with Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (7 Mar 2019)

Kieran O'Donnell: -----of which €191 million is definite overspend? In summary, is it not fair to say that, first, the tendering process that was established, which was a two-stage process rather than an overall lump sum process, contributed to the weakness in the overspend that allowed a preliminary design and, second, the reporting procedures within the Department should have picked that up because...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: National Children's Hospital: Discussion with Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (7 Mar 2019)

Kieran O'Donnell: No, but the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform would lay down the guidelines on how the spending is reviewed. Surely the lesson to be learned is that from now on, the reporting structures from the Departments to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform should not only deal with profile versus what was spent but profile versus now changed profile, in order that it would be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: National Children's Hospital: Discussion with Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (7 Mar 2019)

Kieran O'Donnell: Finally, should this have been a lump sum contract?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: National Children's Hospital: Discussion with Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (7 Mar 2019)

Kieran O'Donnell: Mr. Watt spoke about what, where, when and how. We are duty bound, as a committee, to ask the questions.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: National Children's Hospital: Discussion with Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (7 Mar 2019)

Kieran O'Donnell: When this is distilled down, the project is 50% over budget. That is €450 million.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: National Children's Hospital: Discussion with Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (7 Mar 2019)

Kieran O'Donnell: That is taxpayers' money. It is a project that needs to happen. I have one or two questions for Mr. O'Brien. Regarding the overrun of €450 million, phase A is underground and phase B is overground. Has the underground project come in on budget? I am referring to the lump sum element of the project.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: National Children's Hospital: Discussion with Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (7 Mar 2019)

Kieran O'Donnell: My final question concerns when the project came to the contracts committee in May 2015 and the board of the national children's hospital made a formal proposal. Was an indicative cost given for phase B, the overground phase?