Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise that was not possible for me to visit the hospital in July, as I had Covid around that time. I did not think it would be a good time to visit a hospital when there was the possibility of spreading it. I congratulate all involved, including the development board etc., for bringing to this stage a massive development of worldwide importance and on such a scale as to amaze me and everybody else who has seen it.

However, there is a necessity to reassure the public on an ongoing basis that the project is on target. I accept there will be some overruns but for what it is worth, the theory abroad is the project has already gone three or four times over its original estimate, which is not the case. Last night, the Minister for Finance gave the Dáil a very strong report on the extent to which the resources are still in place that were in place to meet the original plan. However, there is still a need to launch a major programme to ensure that the public knows that this is a massive project that is going beyond what we had thought of previously and has still not exhausted its budget and that any attempt by anybody to strip it down, cut it back or discontinue it is not in anybody's interest and certainly not in the interest of children throughout the country, their parents or paediatric medicine in Ireland. I ask that such a programme be put in place. Incidentally, I visited the site last Sunday and was most impressed with it. If a single position can be adopted to dispel the myth that this is something that can be dissected, stripped down and rendered useless, it would be good because that would be an appalling thing to happen. There are still people throughout this country running around on the basis that this project has exceeded its usefulness. Are the witnesses aware of that? Are we prepared to take measures that will counter that?