Results 461-480 of 1,065,522 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Michael McGrath OR speaker:Carol Nolan OR speaker:Seán Canney OR speaker:Niall Collins OR speaker:Willie O'Dea OR speaker:Claire Kerrane OR speaker:Stephen Donnelly OR speaker:Pat Buckley OR speaker:Jack Chambers OR speaker:Charlie McConalogue OR speaker:Michael Healy-Rae OR speaker:Gino Kenny) in 'Committee meetings'

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: It is a good example of the frustration involved. I included details of it in my letter to the Taoiseach. During what might have been my most recent appearance before the committee to discuss this matter, Deputy Doherty raised the issue. As I have stated previously, I believed he was acting in good faith. I do not believe he was trying to help the contractor out. At the time, I pointed...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: It was completed in a matter of weeks.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: It cost less that 1% of the amount originally stated. It cost less than €200,000 and it took a few weeks to complete. It is worth saying that, mistakenly or not, BAM still issued an invoice to the State for the full €25 million. Perhaps this was an administrative error on the part of the company.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: The reason I wrote directly to the CEO of Royal BAM was that I simply could not have confidence in the June 2025 deadline for completion. When I met the board, the members were very clear that they could not have confidence in it either. The programme of works the company had submitted to meet that was either deemed non-compliant or as yet had not been deemed to be compliant. As I said to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: Commissioning the building is essentially everything required from when we take over an empty, finished building to children walking into that building with their parents to be treated and walking out again. It is a huge operation. We are bringing several children's hospitals into one. There are new operating theatres, new rooms, new ways of working and new nurses' stations. It will be our...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: It so happens that there are things that can be accelerated. Some things cannot be accelerated but other things can be, including the laboratories and other complex back office systems. If the contractor can give us or CHI access to that early, which it has agreed to do, we believe that the commissioning can be accelerated and de-risked to some degree.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I will ask Ms Ross to answer that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: Which meeting?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: On the BAM side, there was the global chief executive, its UK and Ireland chief executive or general manager, whatever the title is, and its chief operating officer. On our side, it was Ms Ross, me, Robert Watt, my Secretary General, Derek Tierney, who is the assistant secretary over this, Bernard Gloster, chief executive of the HSE, and my special adviser, Susan Mitchell.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Gino Kenny: Was the meeting with Royal BAM the first in-person meeting involving the board and the Minister with the higher echelons of the company in the lifetime of this project?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: It was my first meeting with the chief executive of Royal BAM.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Gino Kenny: Had other members of the board ever met the chief executive of Royal BAM?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Gino Kenny: At that meeting, was Royal BAM in any way contrite about the ongoing issues? Did it say that mistakes were made with the logistics of this project?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I do not want to characterise Royal BAM. It is for its representatives to say how they felt at the meeting. I can say that it was a very open conversation. The frustrations on both sides were aired. We need to wait and see but there is the possibility that it will have been a productive meeting. Given that deadlines have come and gone, we would all be naive to walk away and think that it...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Gino Kenny: Did Royal BAM give any commitment about the contribution from its side to the extra costs of this project from where it was initially a number of years ago to where it is now? The people who have to pay it are the taxpayers of this country.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: Regarding the costs, I made the point on behalf of the Irish people that the Irish Government agreed to an amount earlier this year and that is the amount on the table, which we do not intend to add to. It has been made clear that the budget has been set. It is in everybody's interests, including obviously the children of Ireland but also the contractor, for the contractor to accelerate its...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Gino Kenny: Does Royal BAM accept that it is an extraordinary amount from where this project started to where it is at the moment? It is multiples of what the cost was going to be five or six years ago to where it is now. Does it accept that this is an extraordinary amount that the State has to pay, for what is an impressive structure, by the way?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I would prefer not to try to characterise BAM because it would be fully entitled to come back and say that is a matter for the company. I apologise for repeating myself. The full gamut of issues was discussed in a frank and open way.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Gino Kenny: How confident is the Minister that it will be completed by June of next year? How confident was he before the meeting and what is his analysis afterwards?