The senior Department of Public Expenditure official who was on the board planning the national children’s hospital was appointed in a personal capacity and was not required to report back to his department. Mr Quinn, who joined the Department of Public Expenditure in 2013 after working for Eircom, is responsible for reforming procurement across the public sector as part of the Government’s reform programme. “The head of procurement in the Department of Public Expenditure was sitting on the board aware of these escalating costs. Fine Gael TD Kate O’Connell told the committee she found it very disturbing that Mr Quinn knew about this. I am seriously concerned if the head of procurement knew about this and the Minister was not informed until August.”

Source: The Irish Times February 05, 2019 00:56 UTC