Dublin South West Sinn F\u00e9in TD, Se\u00e1n Crowe, has described the Minister for Finance, Pascal Donohoe\u2019s, promise of new procurement legislation to prevent capital overruns as a cynical attempt to deflect attention from his Government\u2019s ineptitude in managing taxpayers\u2019 money when it comes to the National Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n
The Sinn F\u00e9in TD was speaking after his party announced it is a moving a motion of no confidence in the Minister for Health, Simon Harris.<\/p>\n
Deputy Se\u00e1n Crowe said:<\/p>\n
\u201cMinister Donohoe\u2019s plan for new legislation or proposals to prevent future overruns in capital projects is a predictably cynical move to deflect from this Government\u2019s failure to govern, particularly the incompetency of Minister Harris.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe current procurement fiasco that has resulted in the costs of the National Children\u2019s Hospital to escalate by over \u20ac450 million is not primarily due to any failure or deficiency in procurement legislation or guidelines. This scandal has resulted from this Government\u2019s mismanagement of one of the biggest capital health projects the taxpayer has paid for in recent memory.<\/p>\n
“All of the warning signs were there of a dangerous escalation in costs. Warnings were sounded to the Development Board and Steering Group of the hospital, and top officials from both the Departments of Health, and Public Expenditure and Reform, were present.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite this, both Ministers Harris and Donohue, like the proverbial rabbits caught in the headlights, failed to move or take any remedial actions. It is unacceptable that the Irish taxpayers are being left to clear up and pay for the mess.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Department of Public Expenditure and Reform is obliged to review and track major capital projects continually, while the Department of Health is required to update it on the progress of capital projects and spending plans. Why did this not happen?<\/p>\n
\u201cTo claim it was the result of gaps or failures in legislation or the process is to immediately undermine the upcoming review into the cost overrun and to dilute the fundamental issue of individual responsibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fault for that does not rest with imaginary defects in legislation, but with the Ministers concerned and their failure to govern. Minister Harris\u2019 position is completely untenable.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny effort to deflect from this failure of governance must be called out for what it is, pure spin and deflection. An apology in the D\u00e1il is no substitute for accountability. Fianna F\u00e1il must stop protecting the Fine Gael Minister for Health. They should support the Sinn F\u00e9in motion of no confidence in Minister Harris.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was not a systems failure. It was a failure of Government to do its job and govern properly. There needs to be political accountability.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dublin South West Sinn F\u00e9in TD, Se\u00e1n Crowe, has described the Minister for Finance, Pascal Donohoe\u2019s, promise of new procurement legislation to prevent capital overruns as a cynical attempt to deflect attention from his Government\u2019s ineptitude in managing taxpayers\u2019 money when it comes to the National Children\u2019s Hospital. The Sinn F\u00e9in TD was speaking after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[417,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-childrens-hospital","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3715"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3716,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3715\/revisions\/3716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}