Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This morning, parents across Ireland have woken up to the shocking fiasco of the spiralling costs of building the national children's hospital. They read this morning with horror that the situation has spun so far out of control that the estimated cost has ballooned from an initial €404 million in 2012 to a mind-boggling figure of more than €1 billion today. As it stands, Ireland's national children's hospital - if built - will be the most expensive children's hospital to be built anywhere in the world. This infuriating saga is now a sorry tale of bungles, incompetence and broken promises stretching across two decades. In that time, we have seen Governments led by both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael make big announcements to the Irish people but deliver very little. Today, 24 years after the idea was first proposed in 1993, the national children's hospital is still a project wrapped in uncertainty and chaos. However, we should probably expect little else from a Government whose entire approach to health care is based on the fostering of crises, havoc and confusion. As our health system creaks, the Tánaiste's party has spent the past two weeks gazing at its navel, indulging its obsession with the question of who might be its new leader.

I have a newsflash for the Tánaiste: both Fine Gael and the Government are bereft of leaders. The abject failure to get a handle on the astronomical costs of the children's hospital and to allay the fears of parents is proof positive - if further proof were needed -of that fact.

This week, 1,486 patients have found themselves on trolleys in our hospitals and this should rightly cause shock and outrage. The truth, however, is that 500 people lying on trolleys daily has become normal under this Government. We have seen through recent "RTE Investigates" programmes the horrifying stories of children as they wait in agony for vital scoliosis surgery. On 7 March, nurses and hospital support workers will proceed with industrial action because of the stressful and unacceptable working conditions created by this Government. Through its arrogant treatment of nurses, this Government is again putting the health and welfare of our children at grave risk. Whether it is Deputy Varadkar or Deputy Coveney or anyone else in the hot seat, ordinary people have no faith in this Government to deliver a fair health service and accessible health care. Can the Tánaiste tell me how she can stand over the outrageous and spiralling costs of the children's hospital and indicate when the facility will be built?

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