Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Individual harrowing tales set before us last night by the "RTE Investigates" programme revealed a deep malaise at the heart of our national health service. The idea that Governments going back to 2002 were misled about the state of our waiting list is troubling. I echo the call made by my colleague, Deputy Alan Kelly, who wanted and is calling for an independent probe into how these lists are compiled and published. The critical issue is what we do into the future. The work being done by the Committee on the Future of Healthcare is absolutely critical now. I urge its members to ensure three things. First, they should finalise the report as quickly as possible so we can begin implementation. Second, ensure the recommendations are not focused on short-term fixes but on long-term proposals that will expand capacity and increase outputs. Third, ensure whatever is recommended is accompanied by a clear implementation plan and detailed costings in order that the recommendations can be achieved.

Against this backdrop, we also learned from media reports over the weekend that the cost of the national children's hospital has spiralled by almost 50%. As we know, when the planning application for this facility was lodged in 2015 we were told the cost would be €650 million. Less than two years later, and after much continued controversy about the location of the hospital, we now have a successful bidder but with a significantly higher cost. That is without taking into account the more than €200 million cost of the fitting out of the hospital. Some serious questions arise. Why have costs escalated to such an extent in less than two years? Where will this extra money come from?

Such additional expenditure comes against a backdrop of other health pressures. Will the cost of the new Central Mental Hospital in north Dublin, which is a similar project, be on budget? What about the cost of the new maternity hospital, the planning permission for which we still have not seen lodged yet? When will we have answers to these very clear control issues in health care costs? Where will the Taoiseach find the additional €300 million base cost or €500 million, including the outfit cost, for the national children's hospital?

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