Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

No problem. I thank all our guests. The national children's hospital is an important subject. Construction of this hospital has been an ongoing issue in recent decades and it will finally take place. I visited the site a number of months ago along with a number of other Deputies and Senators and it is extremely impressive. When it is finished it will be a major asset to our public health system. Notwithstanding that, there is one big cloud over the whole construction and there is no getting away from the question of cost. I know all our guests have mentioned cost but it staggers the mind how this has spiralled out of control. In 2014 the original cost of the construction of the national children's hospital was €800 million, in 2018 that was quantified to €1.4 billion, in 2022 it is €1.7 billion and I am guessing that the cost will definitely go over €2 billion. All the indications are that it will go over that €2 billion mark, which is an extraordinary amount of money for a hospital.

I do not know if the witnesses can answer the following question definitively: how did people get this so wrong? How did they get the cost so wrong for the construction? We all know construction prices can go over budget over time. We all understand that and Covid was thrown into the environment as well but how could a company get it so wrong? Was it self-inflicted or were the players in the ongoing construction of this project completely unprofessional? How did it go so wrong in the cost?