Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

-----something for which we had been asking of CIÉ for years. However, these achievements are now entering the realm of history. I do not know what to say to the people who could not get on a train at Ashtown yesterday and those who could not possibly get on it further down the line. For Heaven's sake, people could not get on the train at Castleknock because it was already packed. I went there this morning to see for myself what was happening. The Minister needs to send somebody to take a look at what is happening there.

On the national children's hospital, the suggestion is that it was a cost underestimate, rather than a cost overrun. I have to confess to working as an accountant in a previous life and given the client, it certainly sounds like the language they can take home to mammy or somebody like her to explain what went wrong without really explaining it. Does it mean that the State is a soft touch for firms of professional advisers in pitching for any cost increase for which they care to pitch? What are the implications for other projects? We know that hospitals are being built across the world. Recently I referred the Taoiseach to the new hospital being built and developed in Lisbon. It will cost a fraction of what it will cost to build the national children's hospital in Ireland. At various locations in America costs are very much lower. Obviously, I do not expect the Minister to be able to answer a question about broadband, but the all-singing, all-dancing broadband plan, replete with social media posts and videos, is due to be launched shortly and what are we to believe? In respect of current expenditure, not just capital expenditure in the Estimates, is it true that the Minister for Health, Deputy Harris, is already touting the idea that he may need an extra €1 billion by the end of the year? The figures, therefore, are continuing to climb.

Alongside this, the Minister is facing demands in respect of public pay and performance. He is promising to review the guidelines for civil servants on boards in order that we can receive more timely information. I do not know whether the Minister proposes to do this, but we need much more information. Otherwise, outside Brexit, this seems to be a Government that is adrift because we are moving further from the promises made in the capital plan in terms of implementation schedules. Costs are rising at a level which is frightening for many taxpayers in terms of what they will have to fund down the line. That is in dereliction of the first responsibility of the Government.

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