Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests for their time. The second most expensive hospital that has ever been built globally is the Royal Adelaide in Australia. It cost €1.4 billion, which is less than the children's hospital is going to cost. For that amount, the Australians are getting nearly twice as many beds. The most expensive hospital ever built anywhere in the world is the Karolinska University Hospital. At the current rate, that will cost a bit more than the national children's hospital, but they are getting three times as many beds. Per bed, the Irish people are going to pay more than twice as much as the two most expensive hospitals ever built anywhere. On behalf of the Department and the HSE, do Mr. Desmond and Mr. Sullivan accept that this represents a catastrophic failure of management?