Doubt hangs over whether minutes taken at €1.7bn Children's Hospital briefings
Concern has arisen over whether minutes are taken at meetings between the Health Minister and the chair of the board overseeing the state’s biggest, most controversial, infrastructural project, the cost of which jumped €450m last year to €1.433bn.
Fred Barry, who chairs the National Children’s Hospital Development Board (NCHDB), was unable to say if minutes were taken at a recent meeting between himself, Simon Harris and Department of Health general secretary Jim Breslin when the project was being discussed.
He was also unable to say if minutes are ever taken during his one-to-one meetings with Mr Harris.
The capital investment for the whole project is more than €1.7bn.
Mr Barry was asked the question after he told Sinn Féin spokesperson Louise O’Reilly at today’s Joint Oireachtas Health Committee that he would “personally brief the minister” whenever anything significant in relation to the building of the new hospital occurs.
When Ms O’Reilly asked if minutes were taken given the scale of the project, Mr Barry said: “I do not minute them”. He said what the minister chose to do was his own prerogative.
He said he “presumed” some of the meetings are minuted, but that he doesn’t “track what people are doing”.
The Irish Examiner asked the Department of Health if it was aware if the meetings are minuted, but a spokesperson said they were not in a position to respond tonight.
Mr Barry also told the committee that less than €1m has been determined as owed to contractors on foot of claims they have made for additional costs. He said this represented around 50% of the claims determined to date. However, it was impossible to predict the outcome of future claims.
As some are “very, very big”, they could be of substantial cost to the state if the determination went in the contractor’s favour.
Under questioning from Fine Gael health spokesperson Stephen Donnelly as to the residual risks the project is exposed to despite a “guaranteed maximum price” of €1.433bn, Mr Barry said they included construction industry inflation, contractor claims, changes to regulations (eg building regulations), changes to taxes, design changes and delays.
Mr Barry said there had been no changes to the regulations or the design that would alter the cost, and while “delays don’t arise at this stage” as the project still has three years to run, construction was a bit behind where they would like it to be. He said a PWC report published in April had already put the risk of construction industry inflation at between 4% and 14% over the lifetime of the project.
Mr Barry said: “The pressure on this [project] is all upwards. I’m not saying to anyone that there won’t be continuing challenges.”
Mr Barry refused to comment on whether the resignation from the NPHDB of the state’s chief procurement officer (CPO), Paul Quinn, represented a loss to the project.
Under questioning from Labour Health spokesperson Alan Kelly as to whether the CPO’s departure was a setback, Mr Barry said he regretted any loss of expertise to the board, but would not be drawn on individual resignations.
Mr Kelly also asked if the design of the hospital had changed in any way since Mr Kelly took up his role as chair of the board last February.
Mr Barry said the design “as far as I understand it, is fully complete”.
