Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I guarantee that the level of scaremongering about what will not be done or what might be cancelled will go well beyond anything remotely connected to reality in terms of what we have to do to find that additional funding for the children's hospital.

It is the case that the cost of capital projects across the board are escalating and not just Government projects but also in the private sector. This has much to do with tender price inflation, construction going well, a shortage of construction workers, along with increases in materials and pay costs and professional fees. It is a just statement of fact that the cost of construction projects is rising, not just for the children's hospital. That is a cause of concern for us but it is not necessarily entirely under our control. One can really only know the cost of a project when it goes out to tender. One factor we will have to consider when it comes to large projects in particular is not making the actual final decision as to whether we are going to go ahead until we have the final cost. That has not been the practice in the past. The decision has always been made to go ahead. We may need to consider for a larger projects that we can only go ahead when we have the definite final cost.

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