Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, the Taoiseach said that Deputies should go and look at the updates on the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform's website if we want to know what is happening with national development plan, NDP, projects. He said we would find up to the minute figures on the status and cost of all major projects. Unsurprisingly, this turns out not to be true. The only underspends noted on the site arise because some projects spent money before the start of the NDP but the Taoiseach wanted to claim that the full project cost was part of the NDP. Some others have money from other sources such as the European Investment Bank and the Taoiseach wanted to include other people's contributions as part of the Government's advertising. The spreadsheet is a very good reminder of how many of the advertised projects are not planned and will not begin during the life of this Dáil, the next Dáil and probably the one after that.

The more serious point is that, as suspected, nothing has been done to address the significant overspend on the national children's hospital. The spreadsheet projects the overall cost of the project to be €916 million. No alteration has been made to the costings of other major health capital projects. If the health construction inflation, new safety rules and technology requirements which hit the national children's hospital happen for the other projects, since most of these costs will apply, it could undermine the ability to deliver at least 1,000 acute hospital beds. The Taoiseach said the public has a right to know about these projects so surely it has a right to have updates of information which was advertised last year. When will the Taoiseach update the claims he made about what will be delivered under the health provisions of the NDP? When will he outline the impact of the NDP projects on our carbon footprint? When will calculations be made of how it contributes to or detracts from climate change objectives?

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