No minutes taken at Children's Hospital meeting, dept admits
The Department of Health has admitted that no minutes were taken at a recent meeting between the Health Minister and the chair of the board overseeing the country’s largest infrastructural project, the new €1.7bn children’s hospital.
Concerns were raised this week at the Joint Oireachtas Health Committee that minutes may not have been taken when Fred Barry, chair of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NCHDB) met with Simon Harris recently to update him on the project’s progress.
Sinn Féin health spokesperson Louise O’Reilly had asked if the meeting was minuted given the scale of the project.
Mr Barry had responded that he didn’t minute it. He also said that sometimes he meets the minister to update him on the project and he couldn’t say if those meetings were minuted either.
The asked the department if they knew if minutes were taken at the recent meeting.
A spokesperson said “formal minutes were not taken”, that “an official” of the department who attended “did take a note of the meeting for the file” and that the meeting was “an information sharing exercise”.
The spokesperson said in a statement that the minister met with Mr Barry on November 18 and that the meeting was attended ”by others from the Department of Health, the HSE and the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB)”.
Mr Barry had indicated to the health committee last Wednesday that it was the minister, himself and department general secretary Jim Breslin who attended.
The statement went on to say that the meeting “was organised to allow the chair of the NPHDB brief the Minister on progress on the construction of the National Children's Hospital”.
“The meeting was an information-sharing exercise and no decisions were taken.
As such, formal minutes of the meeting were not taken or circulated to those present.
“However, an official of the Department of Health in attendance did take a note of the meeting for the file,” the statement said.
On foot of the department’s response, Ms O’Reilly said meetings about the children’s hospital were “really important, given the scale of overrun of the project”.
The construction cost of the hospital increased by €450m last year.
Ms O’Reilly said she was not impressed by “the casual attitude of the chair” while responding to her concerns at the health committee.
“Minutes should be taken at these meetings, particularly where finances are mentioned. There seems to be a very cavalier attitude to the running of this project,” she said.
