Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The process has begun. The Deputy mentioned the national children's hospital. Permission was granted in April 2016 and €650 million of Exchequer funding was approved for it in 2014. This was for the core construction of the new national children's hospital with the two paediatric outpatient units and the urgent care satellite centres on the campuses of Tallaght and Connolly hospitals. This funding was approved following a cost estimate which began in 2013, four years ago, and completed in early 2014. At that time, construction inflation was estimated to be approximately 3%. The pricing proposed by the tenderer took account of construction inflation which is now running at more than 9%, the extended project timeline, now scheduled to be completed in 2021, and the final market cost of the build. The final proposed cost is within 5% of projections and the successful party was the one with the most competitive tender. There is a monitoring committee to deal with the cost, which will be a contract cost, for the national children's hospital.

The review will be ready by the middle of the year so as we approach the 2018 budget, the analysis of the capital expenditure programme should be available to the Minister. Beyond that, we must examine where we are for the next ten, 15 or 20 years, to an Ireland which will have 1 million more people and a requirement for 500,000 jobs and 500,000 houses.

Where are they going to live and work and how are they going to travel? It is about communications facilities, schools and hospitals. People say that we need six new hospitals and that a new one has not been built since 1998. Clearly the National Children's Hospital and the National Maternity Hospital are part of this. If the HSE says it needs €9 billion, we could probably double that figure and we would still need more. We need facilities for our people for the next 20 to 50 years and this is part of the immediate review and in the longer term.

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