Results 401-420 of 7,777 for speaker:Joe Costello

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board Fund: Finance Statements 2013 (8 Oct 2015)

Joe Costello: It would have changed the footprint. The reason previously given to this committee for the rejection, which, of course, was totally wrong, was that the footprint was too small and that there is a much bigger footprint at Saint James’s Hospital. That was not the reason An Bord Pleanála rejected the initial planning application. It rejected it because it was totally loony. It...

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board Fund: Finance Statements 2013 (8 Oct 2015)

Joe Costello: The site originally proposed.

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board Fund: Finance Statements 2013 (8 Oct 2015)

Joe Costello: It was the site originally proposed, but the second design covered a much broader footprint.

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board Fund: Finance Statements 2013 (8 Oct 2015)

Joe Costello: That is the point. Why did the original board decide to build up to 16 storeys as it was just not going to happen and was not good practice in the case of a children's hospital when there was a footprint that could have been extended and which became available immediately after An Bord Pleanála had rejected the application?

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board Fund: Finance Statements 2013 (8 Oct 2015)

Joe Costello: I know that Mr. Pollock was not around. As we are talking about the financial accounts for 2013 and the impairment charges, we want to know. Mr. Pollock has said the board has learned lessons, but it cannot really have done so unless it knows what happened in the past. How did it happen that a footprint far in excess of what was available originally became available immediately after An...

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board Fund: Finance Statements 2013 (8 Oct 2015)

Joe Costello: Do not forget that the footprint at the Mater Hospital was approved at the time by a number of professional bodies.

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board Fund: Finance Statements 2013 (8 Oct 2015)

Joe Costello: Did the board speak to the previous one? I know that a transition board was appointed, but I do not know why it only lasted about six months. Has the development board spoken to any of the members of the previous board which was responsible for the project from 2007 to 2012?

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board Fund: Finance Statements 2013 (8 Oct 2015)

Joe Costello: But it was not the same board.

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board Fund: Finance Statements 2013 (8 Oct 2015)

Joe Costello: It took five years for all of that to happen. Who was monitoring what the board was doing? Who was ultimately responsible? Was it the HSE or the Department of Health? Why did no one ask why it had taken five years to get an application to An Bord Pleanála when this was regarded as something that needed to be done very quickly and the Government was looking to have a national...

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board Fund: Finance Statements 2013 (8 Oct 2015)

Joe Costello: Among yourselves.

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board Fund: Finance Statements 2013 (8 Oct 2015)

Joe Costello: I am asking about the survey and analysis of what had been going on over five years and whether it was found out why it had taken so long and then why it had been done so badly.

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board Fund: Finance Statements 2013 (8 Oct 2015)

Joe Costello: We are talking about €35.5 million of taxpayers' money that went down the drain. I do not think we have received an adequate explanation as to why and how all of this happened and how such a completely inadequate plan was sent to An Bord Pleanála after five years. Where was the accountability throughout the five years? Can we just leave it and say, "That was the previous board...

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board Fund: Finance Statements 2013 (8 Oct 2015)

Joe Costello: Which begs the question, why did it take the previous board five years to do that?

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board Fund: Finance Statements 2013 (8 Oct 2015)

Joe Costello: Mr. Costello is being very generous to the previous board.

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board Fund: Finance Statements 2013 (8 Oct 2015)

Joe Costello: That was decided in 2006.

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board Fund: Finance Statements 2013 (8 Oct 2015)

Joe Costello: All of these issues had been dealt with before the end of 2007.

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board Fund: Finance Statements 2013 (8 Oct 2015)

Joe Costello: The previous board was building on what had been previously. The decision to build a new hospital was not made overnight. The decision to have one national paediatric hospital was made in 2006. Prior to that, a decision had been taken to build a children's hospital on the site. I have not asked what happened to all of the design work that took place prior to that, which should have had...

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board Fund: Finance Statements 2013 (8 Oct 2015)

Joe Costello: If a decision had been made not to proceed with the plan to only transfer the Temple Street hospital to the Mater site, why then was a larger site in the context of the decision to build the national paediatric hospital not acquired?

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board Fund: Finance Statements 2013 (8 Oct 2015)

Joe Costello: The Mater site had been identified for donkeys' years. Why was the decision made to fit the national paediatric hospital into that site when there was a broader footprint available? There is a question mark over the initial decision of the then board to develop a national paediatric hospital on the Mater site, the length of time it spent on that process despite precedent in that regard and...

Public Accounts Committee: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board Fund: Finance Statements 2013 (8 Oct 2015)

Joe Costello: We need to get a handle on the scenario at play over many years in relation to the Mater site that resulted in the loss of a considerable amount of money.