The Minister for Health has accused Sinn Féin of performing a "Parliamentary stunt" withs its motion of no confidence in him over the spiralling cost of the National Children’s Hospital.

Minister Simon Harris has been defending his handling of the cost overruns in the Dáil this evening.

Under questioning from opposition TDs, he said the Government “will not be found wanting” when it comes to acting against anyone found responsible for the €450m overspend.

He faced stiff criticism from the opposition but insisted a review of the process that is being carried out by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) must be allowed to complete its work before action is taken against anyone.

“We will not be found wanting and I will not be found wanting when it comes to acting against any entity or any company where errors were made,” he said.

“If the report finds the requirement for governance or personnel changes, I will state it clearly, that these will happen.

“It is important that we give the review an opportunity to undertake its work before drawing conclusion prematurely.”

Apology

Minister Harris yesterday issued a formal apology to the Dáil for his failure to provide all the information he had about the cost overruns when answering questions on the matter last September.

Sinn Féin labelled the apology “feeble” and has pledged to move forward with a motion of no confidence in him next week.

On Newstalk’s Moncrieff this afternoon, Fianna Fáil health spokesperson Stephen Donnelly said his party does not have confidence in the Government on health – but said it could not support the motion – as doing so would breach the confidence and supply arrangement with Fine Gael and bring down the Government.

Responsibility

This evening, Sinn Féin health spokesperson Louise O’Reilly said many questions remain unanswered.

“We note you came in yesterday; you apologised,” she said. “I don’t think anyone was satisfied with it but you did apologise.”

“You haven’t apologised for the half-a-billion Euro overrun and neither do you appear interested in taking any responsibility for that.

“I think that is very, very regrettable.”

“Parliamentary stunt"

Minister Harris said the motion was a “Parliamentary stunt.”

“No matter what I said yesterday, you were never going to be satisfied with the apology because you had decided your position in relation to this before,” he said.

“That is OK. That is your style as a party – not actually hearing what people have to say before deciding the action to take.

“It is a Parliamentary stunt you use regularly.”