Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will ask the Secretary General to come in on a few of the issues raised by the Senator but will make a few comments first. I listened to the former Taoiseach, Mr. Bertie Ahern, talking about this on the radio last weekend. He spoke about the huge volume of work that he and his Ministers did in his time, in terms of the discussion about the need for a children's hospital, what other countries have done, what sites were available and so on. I was struck by the fact that so many Ministers of Health, Governments and taoisigh have been involved in this project. This is something that was probably scrutinised, considered and debated more than any other capital project and bizarrely, it has still yet to be delivered.

Senator Colm Burke referenced some projects that ran over budget but were delivered. I heard some members of the commentariat refer in recent days to other public projects like Thornton Hall on which €50 million of taxpayers' money was spent, the Mater Hospital site on which €40 million was spent, as well as e-voting machines, PPARS and so on and try to compare them to this project. Obviously, that is such a ridiculous analogy because the difference with all of them is that none of them happened. This children's hospital is going to open. Indeed, the Connolly part of it will open this summer. The X-ray machine was delivered this week and it is going to start serving kids this year.

Senator Colm Burke is right to raise the issue of the comparative costs with other countries and the international comparisons. AECOM completed an external report on this and estimated that the cost of this project is approximately €6,500 per sq. m. Regarding international comparisons, it estimated that the cost of building the equivalent paediatric hospital in London would be €9,000 per sq. m. The report also referred to the spectrum of the costs being somewhere between €6,000 and €8,000 per sq. m. If one was to measure the project just by bed numbers, one could get a great headline figure about the world's most expensive hospital. However, paediatric healthcare is about a hell of lot more than just putting a child in a bed and in that context, this project is not the world's most expensive hospital or anything like it. We will move from having 14 theatres today serving children in Ireland - and we all know the impact of only having 14 theatres in terms of waiting times - to 22 theatres. There will be outdoor space so that kids can exercise and get fresh air. I heard something on radio recently which went unchallenged. I heard somebody on radio ask why we need so much outdoor space in the new hospital, given that there are lots of parks in Dublin to which the kids could go. That sort of ignorant comment is incredible and the person who said it should get in his or her car and visit Crumlin or Temple Street hospitals and look the children there in the eye and repeat it. Some of the children have spent most of their lives in hospital while others have been there for months on end. They cannot go to the local park because they are ill.

Serious questions must be answered regarding this project and we need to get to the bottom of serious issues but gathering in a radio studio to wax lyrical about Thornton Hall and open spaces shows a lack of basic understanding of the matter. I will now ask the Secretary General to comment on some of the figures and comparisons referred to by the Senator.