Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move:

“That Dáil Éireann:notes:

— the desire of all political parties, groups and members to improve and prioritise medical outcomes for the nation’s sick children;

— the current cost of the construction of the National Children’s Hospital stands at €1.433 billion and rising;

— that this represents the most dramatic, fluid and unprecedented cost escalation level for any single health related project in the history of the State;

— that this escalation in costs is likely to be ongoing and represents significant challenges in the capacity to deliver urgently needed local health related or capital spending projects;

— that the urgent clinical necessity of co-locating a maternity hospital with the National Children’s Hospital is now seriously compromised if not fatally undermined due to site capacity issues;

— that fire safety and structural viability related concerns have been flagged around the decision to construct approximately 1,000 underground car parking spaces directly under the National Children’s Hospital;

— that the independent review of National Children’s Hospital project (2011) and the Review Group on the National Children’s Hospital (2012) stated that it would be 25 per cent less expensive to build on a greenfield site than on an urban site; and

— the decision by Government and the Health Service Executive (HSE) to commission a review by PricewaterhouseCoopers to establish the sequence of events in relation to the cost increases experienced by the project, establish what was known, when and by whom, and the reporting of relevant information from the project team to the relevant oversight and governance bodies including the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board and also its committees, the HSE and the Department of Health; and

calls on the Government to:

— immediately suspend construction of the National Children’s Hospital at the St James’s Hospital site pending the outcome of a time-limited independent investigation to assess the viability, cost and efficacy of re-tendering the project and transferring its location to a greenfield site with the capacity to include the co-location of a maternity hospital; and

— utilise any site preparation work already started at St. James’s Hospital to develop a satellite children’s urgent care centre, further adult services or any other services deemed most appropriate in the event that a recommendation for relocation is made following the outcome of the independent investigation.”

I would like to acknowledge the work of our Whip, Deputy Mattie McGrath, and the staff in his office in preparing this motion. This is not our first time coming before this House to speak about the national children's hospital and our concerns about it. Our views are very heartfelt, sincere and factual. We were bitterly disappointed in March 2017, a month before the Government signed the dreaded contract that led to the situation in which we now find ourselves, with a massive overrun that has the potential to detrimentally affect many health projects throughout the country. I will make no apology for saying that in County Kerry we want a new community hospital to be built in Killarney. I am sincerely very worried that this massive overrun will affect the budget for that project. I am very concerned to ensure that more beds are made available in University Hospital Kerry in Tralee. We want to keep that hospital open. We do not want it to be made into a second-class hospital or downgraded to a glorified community hospital. I was dealing with situations there today. They are absolutely crying out for more beds in University Hospital Kerry.

This massive budgetary overrun was caused by the Government's mistake in locating the national children's hospital in the wrong place. It is costing multiples of what it would if it was located in the right place. We told the Government that it was wrong in March 2017. It was wrong then, and it is wrong now. If the Government starts out wrong, it finishes wrong.

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