Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

Ireland has rare form when it comes to overspending on infrastructural projects. There was the motorway network, Luas, the HSE personnel, payroll and related systems, PPARS, Dublin Port and now we have a national children's hospital and the national broadband plan coming in at an extreme cost. In 2016, the Taoiseach stated that, short of an asteroid hitting the planet, the national children's hospital would be finished by 2020. He estimated that it would take €670 million in order to complete the project. The figure is now north of €1.7 billion. The Government estimated that the national broadband plan would cost €500 million and now it aims to deliver broadband to a third fewer houses over a period three times longer at six times the 2012 cost. Why are we spending so much on infrastructural projects and how is the Government going to stop overspending?

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