Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leader for outlining the Order of Business. On the day that is in it, I could not go without mentioning Brexit again and the special meeting of the European Council in Brussels. Theresa May is now hoping for a delay until 30 June but there does not seem to be a lot of co-operation and collaboration among the parties in the UK yet. I still hope they will come to their senses and cancel Brexit but in the absence of that, although it is not necessarily wonderful to leave us all in an uncertain position, I would prefer an uncertain position to a certain position that was not very positive so we should try to encourage them to resolve it if they can but if they are unable to resolve it, we should allow them a delay to enable them to come to a position that, hopefully, will be better for Ireland than what is being proposed at the moment.

The report published by PricewaterhouseCoopers, PwC, regarding the National Children's Hospital still raises concerns that there are significant risks and potential cost overruns even at this point. The governance procedures and the way in which capital projects generally are being managed, not managed or poorly managed is a matter of concern for all of us. We have the National Children's Hospital, the national broadband plan and various other capital infrastructure projects. Only this morning, the Minister for Health was talking about wanting to turn a sod this year on the national maternity hospital. There is potential there for significant cost overruns unless it is properly managed. We should have a discussion with the Minister for Finance, and Public Expenditure and Reform regarding procurement generally but particularly the procurement of large capital projects in the best interests of the nation. It should not be rocket science at this stage. We have motorways, airports and various other infrastructure but we need to examine how we do these projects in the longer term.

I also wish to flag the fact that we have the highest trolley numbers so far this year with 631 people currently awaiting a bed in a hospital.It is a nationwide problem with Limerick, Sligo and Cork being particularly badly affected. This House should hear from the Minister for Health as to what is being done. This happens every year but this is the highest number so far. One would have hoped that by April, as the weather improves and so on, that the situation would have improved rather than got worse.

It might be useful at some point for the Minister of State at the Department of Defence to come to the House to discuss Air Corps numbers and staffing because there is a report that the Air Corps is significantly understaffed, particularly in key grades, which has resulted in operational difficulties. I ask that the Minister of State come to the House to outline his plans in that regard.