Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

It is not credible that he did not tell his colleagues and if he did not, he certainly should have. The Minister has not answered that. Everybody is coming out with this mantra that the Minister did the right thing, but he did not do the right thing and that is quite clear.

Let us go to 9 November. On 9 November, the Minister talked about the Government taking a decision based on three options. Can he present the basis on which that decision was taken, including the costings involved in each of those options? There is a fourth option, however. This should have been looked at and still needs to be looked at, namely the option of halting this project and starting again elsewhere. Has the Minister costed that option? He talks about clinical importance. The clinical importance is in ensuring that this project is brought in, along with the long promised maternity hospital on that site. Has the Minister costed what is entailed in providing a maternity hospital on that site? I understand that it will involve great expense with the difficult site, but it will also entail knocking some of the existing buildings in the general hospital. Has the Minister considered that and has he done the costings on what it would mean to halt the project at this stage and build the children's hospital and a maternity hospital in an alternative location? Is he is aware of the fact that in Hamburg, in the past year, a children's hospital with almost 150 beds was built for €70 million? In Helsinki, a 140-bed hospital was built for €170 million. That would bring our hospital in at approximately €400 million. That is a long way from what the Minister is talking about at the moment. Has he done the costings on each of the options that were before him and has he costed the possibility of moving to another site?

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