Results 16,141-16,160 of 32,864 for speaker:Paschal Donohoe
- National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: I assume that there have been communications between the EIB and officials in my Department. I do not know the nature of those but I assume there have been communications and if there is anything there that is not commercially sensitive, I will share the nature of it with the Deputy.
- National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: Not on the nature of a loan and how it is being operated. I would have been involved in the decision on accessing the loan. Nothing has happened since then that I am aware of but I will check for the Deputy.
- National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: It is true there are matters in respect of the future cost of this project and how we can save money on it on which the Government is still working. That is why we have appointed Fred Barry as the new chair of the board and why we have a PwC report under way. The Deputy acknowledged that none of us has a monopoly on wisdom or certainty in respect of this matter. It is my genuine view,...
- National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: On the interest rate for the funding we have from EIB, I do not have that information. If the information is publicly available and we can share it with the Deputy, I will write to him with it. As to whether we have looked for a further loan from the EIB for the project, the answer is "No. We have not". We know how much extra money is currently needed for the project-----
- National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: -----and it should be made available from the Exchequer.
- National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: I will deal with that. We tried to put together one utility company to deliver infrastructure for something that really mattered for our country, which was Irish Water. Deputy Barry opposed that too. Let us be clear.
- National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: When we tried to put together an organisation whose job was to deliver infrastructure-----
- National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: -----Deputy Barry was against that too. Deputy Barry can make speeches but when somebody on this side of the House responds, it is not good enough for him. He has made several allegations and statements about a company that does not have the ability to defend itself here.
- National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: The Leas-Cheann Comhairle may have warned him, but he kept going.
- National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: It is important to state that every procurement policy-----
- National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: It is interesting that what he says appears to be what he has stated repeatedly in the past.
- National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: To answer the question, a company has the right to participate in a procurement process. It is up to those running the process to decide what they believe to be the best value for the project. That is what happened in respect of the different processes-----
- National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: Again, I am trying to answer the question.
- National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: The Government agreed yesterday that there is a role for other tendering processes in respect of very large projects in future. I have outlined what are the characteristics of those projects. We will look at how we can conduct tendering processes differently in the future. It is not appropriate to go beyond that.
- National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: Deputy Kelly put three questions to me in respect of my role in the situation, the alleged dysfunctionality in my Department and the timeline for engagement with the Minister for Health. First, what was my role? As Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, I have responsibility for the use of taxpayers' money. I acknowledge that. I have done so on many different occasions.
- National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: Clearly, an issue developed here -it has developed on my watch - in respect of a cost estimate and it has led to very serious concerns in this House and throughout the country. What would I have done differently and what are my learnings from what has happened? Yesterday, I published an entire set of different proposals on how we can change the procurement process relating to vary large...
- National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: That matters because the Deputy is making an allegation about the operation of my Department and we are acknowledging-----
- National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: -----in the context of this issue what needs to be done differently in the future. In acknowledging that, I will also point to the kinds of projects that we do get right and that are in place.
- National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: The reason for that is we had just finished many different sequences of budgetary meetings that had been focused on how we put together the budget. Nearly all of those meetings were focused on current expenditure. That is the reason, as some of the emails acknowledge. We had just finished a period of Estimates negotiations and we were then moving on to implement the budget. As soon as I...
- National Children's Hospital: Statements (13 Feb 2019)
Paschal Donohoe: I will deal with the final question.