Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has been warned by the chief executive of the company building the National Children’s Hospital that builders will not take on major infrastructure works if they are faced with “uncontrollable risks”. But, he said, “if you look at the national children’s hospital, the broadband project and now the Dunkettle interchange [in Cork], all have highlighted issues with the public procurement process.”The main problem, he said, was the “allocation of uncontrollable risks”. “So I would say that it is better that these uncontrollable risks are addressed early on in these large projects,” he declared.. “That can be seen where we see Irish contractors now being asked by the likes of large multinationals such as Google and Facebook to operate all over Europe and outside of Europe. These companies feel that Irish contractors are the best.”Defending the reputations of Irish-based construction firms, he said the fact that they are used by multinationals is “an expression of confidence in Irish construction”.

Source: The Irish Times July 19, 2019 00:00 UTC