Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

There is no doubt that the spiralling cost of the national children's hospital is an example of the Government's laissez-faireattitude to large-scale capital projects and by far the most disastrous. It has obviously had an effect on other capital projects. The project I care about most is the 96-bed hospital in my constituency, University Hospital Limerick, UHL, which continues to be the most consistently overcrowded facility in the country.

The cost of building the new children's hospital on the site of St. James's Hospital in Dublin has increased from €987 million in 2017 to more than €1.4 billion. While the Minister has indicated that he does not believe it, the total bill will certainly be more than €1.7 billion. There are many people who believe it will not stop at €2 billion when it is completed, including IT commissioning and fitting out. The Minister stated: "No further increases to this figure have been put to, or agreed to by, Government." I accept that no further increases to the figure may be agreed by the Government now, but the question is whether there will be further increases in the future. That is really what we need to know.

I do not know if Ministers for Health and Finance were completely asleep at the wheel as these costs escalated. The Minister for Finance's chief procurement officer was sitting on the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board. Did he just ignore all the alarm bells? Amazingly, despite weekly meetings with his Minister, did he never hint at an overrun on the project? Now we know that Paul Quinn, the State's chief procurement officer, which is a role tasked with securing value for money reforms in the use of private contractors by public bodies, who sat on the children's hospital board because of his expertise and was the chair of its finance subcommittee, has resigned in recent weeks. The board minutes from a meeting on 7 August noted the senior civil servant's resignation from the hospital board. Mr. Quinn is the latest senior figure to step aside from the board. Other previous resignations included the chairman of the board, Tom Costello, and the project director, John Pollock. According to the Comptroller and Auditor General, as a senior civil servant, Mr. Quinn is obliged to pass on concerns about the rising costs of the project to the relevant Government Minister, if he felt the hospital board was not addressing them. The Comptroller and Auditor General stated that Mr. Quinn was bound by a circular stating that information should be presented to the Minister where there are serious weaknesses in controls that have not been addressed, or where there is a risk of reputational damage to the body. This appears to have never gotten through to the Minister.

As others have indicated, the real issue now is that this project is affecting so many projects across the country. HSE managers are openly telling Deputies that their local projects such as nursing homes and primary care centres cannot proceed because there is no money in the kitty. In many cases, the HSE is just profiling the spend and pushing it out by years in order to hide the fact that it is not happening. At a national level the progress being made on a range of projects shows there is no funding available. Despite the situation with overcrowding at UHL, there does not appear to be any real provision for the proposed new 96-bed block in the hospital, which we absolutely need.

I hope the Minister can reassure me in respect of that matter when he replies. The other hospitals in the mid-west are trying to pick up the slack, but there is simply not enough capacity to do so. We need to know also when the scanner will be rented or delivered. I hope the Minister has some news on that. There is no provision for proper capital spending on the national maternity strategy and that affects the hospital in Limerick and the three hospitals in Dublin. It is, again, a very sad state of affairs in Limerick when the HSE cannot find €1 million for the design of the new maternity hospital.

What is of great concern is the design of the new children's hospital. Are there new issues with the design and with health and safety in the hospital? I quoted the Minister's comments to the effect that no further increases had been agreed by Government. Can he confirm, however, that these issues in respect of design and health and safety do not arise? We need to have full confidence that additional costs are not coming, yet again, on the children's hospital because of mismanagement. If there are, I hope the Minister will tell us.

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