Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We have heard in recent days that the cost of the national children's hospital is likely to be even higher. We have also learnt that the State's chief procurement officer has resigned from the hospital's development board. On Tuesday, the Taoiseach said the following in that regard: "it happened in July 2019 and is not news and certainly not new news", "His decision on this is a matter for himself", and "I do not know the reasons for it". The position of the Taoiseach and the Minister for Health is that the State's chief procurement officer was on the board in a personal capacity and that his resignation from the board is a personal matter. Fianna Fáil and I find this an extraordinary position for the Government to take.

Fine Gael told the Irish people that the children's hospital would cost €650 million. Then it was €1.4 billion. It then turned out another €300 million had not been added in, so it was €1.7 billion. Many people have asked how any Government could be so reckless with the taxes people work so hard to pay. The Government's response was extraordinary. It blamed inflation, contractors, and managers and then claimed that there was no overspend but rather that some other people had underestimated the cost at the start. It then claimed that finding the additional money needed for the building would not impact on other healthcare services and claimed that it was still getting the hospital built at a reasonable price. The response from the Government this week has been equally extraordinary and, I must say, equally insulting to many people. As before, it is case of hands off, nothing to see here. Not only is Government not on top of the detail of this resignation, it has not even bothered to find out why it happened. This is how one loses financial control of big capital projects and of public healthcare.

The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council recently published analysis of healthcare overspending going back many years. It found that from 2005 to 2010, the six years of the HSE for which Fianna Fáil was in government, the overspend each year was €0. Over a six-year period, the cumulative overspend for the HSE on healthcare was €0. It was €500 million in 2016, €200 million in 2017, €650 million in 2018, and it is set to be approximately €350 million this year. This comes to a total of approximately €1.7 billion in just four years. In parallel, over the same period, the cost of the children's hospital has increased by €1 billion so far, although it will probably cost several hundred million euro, more based on the bits and pieces we are finding out.

The human cost of these overruns cannot be overstated. I will now read out testimony I received today from one of our doctors, a consultant ophthalmologist.

From the way she was led into the room, to the searching look as she moved her head to see me in a small residual island of sight, I knew from the outset that whatever I could have done for her in the past, it was already too late. This is endstage glaucoma. Let's call her Brigid. Referred from another regional centre, Brigid told me about the heartbreaking wait for a review appointment for over 2 years for a disease that she knew she had, a disease she knew was progressing. She told me about her many calls to request appointments, being told repeatedly that the hospital would contact her. But the hospital never did. She described how she felt abandoned, waiting daily for a letter in the post, forgotten. She told me about the lonely hours at night, living alone in darkness unable any more to watch TV, read the headlines or get around her house, concerned that if a letter came now that she might miss it. She told about how she can no longer leave the house alone to shop; about how the light is fading and how she has an ominous sense that it will soon go out. She is correct. I could have saved her from that. So could others had she been reviewed in time. Now all I can do is delay it a little.

The doctor went on to explain that she meets another Brigid every month and stated that the "reason we are now seeing blind in one or both eyes is that the between visit interval is now 4 to 6 times higher than recommended". Why is this happening? It is because there is not the money to hire the ophthalmologists to treat women such as Brigid and men. It is also happening because, despite massive increases in healthcare spending and Ireland having one of the biggest healthcare budgets on Earth, somehow the money is not available. Why is that? It is because of the overruns and overspends.

When the State's chief procurement officer resigns from the development board of the national children's hospital it is relevant and it is news. Understanding why he resigned is relevant. Getting his insight into how to stop the costs escalating further is also relevant.

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