Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Wallace. I am sorry that I cannot answer some of the detailed questions he has asked but I will relay them to the Minister.

I fundamentally disagree with the Deputy on the way the project has been run from the outset. We are not just talking about a building. It is about having a facility for all the children of Ireland. It is about having a facility in a community that I know personally has changed the lives of people who are working in the construction industry now. There are many tentacles, so to speak, to this project besides building the new national children's hospital. It is about a community being revitalised as well. I have no other opinion on that.

The independent review of the cost of the new national children's hospital undertaken by PwC pointed out that a project of the complexity of the hospital can never be fully de-risked. The report states that a number of risk areas remain that have the potential to place further cost pressures on the budget, some of which are outside the control of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board. One risk related to construction inflation and further likely costs arising from the impact of excessive inflation post July 2019, that is, in excess of 4%, as provided in the contract and measured using the average of the published tender price index. The primary focus of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board is to manage risk with a view to preventing further cost escalations.

The establishment of the new children's hospital provides a unique opportunity to introduce the new model of care for all paediatric services to help tackle current and future challenges in child health and deliver the huge advantages that are possible in children's healthcare.

As someone who lives quite close to the new national children's hospital, I note the impact it will have, not only on the lives of many children from across the country, but also on those of the community in an area which has been left behind over many years.

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