Deputy Farrelly and I also flagged a separate piece of correspondence from the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board. I will speak to the two of them at this point. It is quite concerning. There is new information in terms of the completion of rooms within the hospital. There seems to be some improvement. I think about 5,000 of the rooms are now completed. Of the 5,700, there remain 700 rooms to be completed. There has been an improvement there, but there is no completion date and there is no handover date. The briefing note there from the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board is probably the most up-to-date information out there. It was sent to us last week and that is quite concerning.
There are other areas of concern in it. The fire doors absolutely are one, but they talk about the floors in the theatres. In one theatre the floor had to be done three times. How does something like that happen? Who is looking over this? Where is the clerk of works or the person with responsibility? Looking at the amount BAM has in claims; it is nearly €1 billion. There are fundamental flaws here at every level. Who is responsible for it? I do not think it is for this committee to get stuck into that but somebody is seriously at fault to allow situations like that arise.
There is another situation that has arisen now with the bathrooms. Out of the 244 bathrooms and wet areas that have been fitted, 126 need remediative action to address issues with them. How does a situation like that arise? It goes right back to the initial contract. There were serious issues in terms of the weakness in the contract. There are other issues there with the fire doors, the floors, the ventilation systems, and all of these issues, and again, there is no deadline.
The correspondence given to us is kind of a back and forth between BAM and the Minister. I do not think members of the public want to see that. They do not want to hear that. They want a hospital delivered, not a kind of backwards and forwards between the Minister and BAM, pointing fingers at each other.
The other point that is concerning and that has come before this committee time and time again is the number of workers on site in the hospital. Again, concern is being drawn to a substantial reduction in workers on site and that has set off serious alarm bells in terms of the inability to provide a completion date. A question was put at committee yesterday as to whether we would see a completion date before 2029 and there was an inability to answer even that question. That does not give much hope to anybody out there.
We need to follow up again and continue to request up-to-date information, progress reports and those specific areas that we have referenced in our discussions here. Unless any other members wish to comment, is it agreed to note and publish that item? Agreed.
No. R2026/0480 is correspondence received from the chief executive officer at the Land Development Agency regarding non-compliant procurement, dated the 18 September 2026. Is it agreed to note and publish this correspondence? Agreed.
Correspondence has been received from the chief executive officer of Bord Bia regarding non-compliant procurement, dated 18 September 2026. I flagged this item for discussion as there were some interesting points. There was a huge level of non-compliant procurement, but the issue that jumped off the page was €65,000 for a Dutch supermarket for non-compliant procurement. I want to get further information in relation to that. Bord Bia has a specific role. I am not sure what the engagement with a Dutch supermarket relates to, so I want to get some information on that. Is it agreed to note and publish this item? Agreed.
No. R2026/0482 is correspondence received from the chief executive officer of the Cork Education and Training Board regarding non-compliant procurement, dated 18 September 2026. Is it agreed to note and publish this? Agreed.
No. R2026/0483 is correspondence received from the chief executive officer at the Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board regarding non-compliant procurement, dated 18 September 2026. Is it agreed to note and publish? Agreed.
No. R2026/0484 is correspondence received from the chief executive officer of Inland Fisheries Ireland regarding non-compliant procurement, dated 18 September 2026. I flagged this item for discussion. It makes reference to an expenditure of quarter of a million euro for weed control with no compliant procurement. It seems like an extraordinary amount of money for it not to go through that process. Given it is Inland Fisheries Ireland, what are the requirements for weed control? I wish to get further information from Inland Fisheries Ireland in relation to that expenditure. Is it agreed to note and publish this item? Agreed.
No. R2026/0485 is correspondence received from the president of University College Cork regarding non-compliant procurement, dated 18 September 2026. Is it agreed to note and publish this item? Agreed.
No. R2026/0486 is correspondence received from the Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation regarding the late laying of the 2024 financial statements regarding the National Lottery Fund, the Office of the Regulator of the National Lottery and the Institute of Public Administration dated 18 September 2026. Is it agreed to note and publish the item? Agreed.
No. R2026/0488 is correspondence received from the Secretary General of the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment regarding the late laying of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission accounts for 2024, dated 21 September 2026.
Is it agreed to note and publish this item? Agreed.
No. R2026/0489, dated 21 September 2026, is correspondence received from the chief executive officer of the Road Safety Authority, RSA, regarding non-compliant procurement. I flagged this for brief discussion. There was expenditure of €2.7 million on a creative agency and, again, there was non-compliant procurement for that. I would like to request a breakdown of what that spending was for, what the campaign was for, etc. Is it agreed to note and publish this item? Agreed.
No. R2026/0490, dated 21 September 2026, is correspondence received from the director of the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, regarding non-compliant procurement. Is it agreed to note and publish this item?
