Results 161-180 of 3,336 for speaker:Kate O'Connell

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Construction of National Children's Hospital: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (27 Nov 2019)

Kate O'Connell: I do not want to stray too much into the maternity hospital, but in terms of the plant and the capacity of the parent site, is there existing capacity in the infrastructure to run the maternity hospital? Perhaps this is Mr. Gunning's area. For want of a better way of putting it, is there capacity to plug the maternity hospital into the existing plant or will we have to upgrade the plant and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Construction of National Children's Hospital: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (27 Nov 2019)

Kate O'Connell: I think Mr. Barry referred to the building energy rating, BER. Was it always the case that we were looking for this rating or did the application happen during the design or post the design stage? My concern is about the cost. While I am in favour of it, and think it is positive to get a 60% to 70% reduction in current output, which is to be welcomed in terms of climate and costs, but is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Construction of National Children's Hospital: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (27 Nov 2019)

Kate O'Connell: Following on from Deputy Durkan's questions about the slowing of the project in terms of construction costs and concrete costs, prefabricated pieces are coming in and there is also pouring on site into shuttering in the normal way. Is it as simple as supply and demand or have there been any other identifiable or quantifiable overruns on concrete?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Construction of National Children's Hospital: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (27 Nov 2019)

Kate O'Connell: I understand that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Construction of National Children's Hospital: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (27 Nov 2019)

Kate O'Connell: Surely the children's hospital is buying more concrete than anyone else right now and more prefabricated units, so it must have the upper hand in terms of buying power. I am not suggesting that someone who wants just a load of concrete should not get it, but surely the company constructing a building such as the children's hospital that requires so much concrete is in a stronger position...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Construction of National Children's Hospital: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (27 Nov 2019)

Kate O'Connell: I can see how much concrete has been used.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Construction of National Children's Hospital: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (27 Nov 2019)

Kate O'Connell: So we are getting our fill of concrete.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Construction of National Children's Hospital: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (27 Nov 2019)

Kate O'Connell: I think Deputy O'Reilly referred to claims when I was momentarily absent, additional claims on top of the guaranteed maximum price, GMP, have been submitted by the contractor, which is fairly normal. Did Mr. Barry say that more than 50% of those claims to date have been paid?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Construction of National Children's Hospital: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (27 Nov 2019)

Kate O'Connell: They say they want €1,000 for that window and the board says it will give €800 and the quantity surveyor, QS, says-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Construction of National Children's Hospital: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (27 Nov 2019)

Kate O'Connell: Is the total cost of just about 50% of those claims submitted under €1 million?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Construction of National Children's Hospital: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (27 Nov 2019)

Kate O'Connell: In terms of prioritising or triaging the claims, is it the case that the little ones are dealt with first or is it just pot luck?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Construction of National Children's Hospital: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (27 Nov 2019)

Kate O'Connell: Going back to the concrete again, if one cannot build a concrete frame and bring in the beams and shuttering, one cannot put in the windows or heating system. My question is on the sequencing of works on site. Let us say if the contractor does not get the beams and the concrete in in the right period of time, for whatever reason, perhaps the wrong beams or the wrong type of concrete were...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Construction of National Children's Hospital: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (27 Nov 2019)

Kate O'Connell: Mr. Barry referenced that the pressures are all upwards, which is reflective of what is going on in the real world. If hypothetically, psychic Steve was with us today, in terms of inflation, if we had a recession, technically, the costs could go down.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Construction of National Children's Hospital: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (27 Nov 2019)

Kate O'Connell: Some people have such gifts, but it would be great to predict inflation.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Construction of National Children's Hospital: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (27 Nov 2019)

Kate O'Connell: I understand. Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Construction of National Children's Hospital: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (27 Nov 2019)

Kate O'Connell: It is unlikely. The point I am making is that it is impossible to quantify right now where construction inflation will be.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Construction of National Children's Hospital: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (27 Nov 2019)

Kate O'Connell: No, I do not think anyone can. I am just making sure that there is nobody in here who knows the answer. We cannot know. The PwC report indicated it would be between 3% and 5%. We discussed that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Construction of National Children's Hospital: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (27 Nov 2019)

Kate O'Connell: Okay. I have one other question. It struck me the other night in Crumlin that everybody had new name tags with "CHI" on them. I am probably being petty but I get concerned when branding is a priority. Who is responsible for rolling that out? Everybody had new CHI tags. I think back to how difficult it was to implement a pay system, PPARS, in the past yet somehow the hospital has managed...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Construction of National Children's Hospital: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (27 Nov 2019)

Kate O'Connell: I am all for that process, but it just struck me that everyone's tag had been changed. It is the most efficient thing I have seen recently.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: Update on Construction of National Children's Hospital: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (27 Nov 2019)

Kate O'Connell: With regard to what I should not call the out-of-control expenses because that gives the wrong view, but the expenses or claims that are outside of the immediate control of the board, what are they? The witnesses mentioned they are managing the ones that are within their control. I do not want the narrative to go out that there is some element that is out of control, which is not what is...