Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Thank you. I am sorry. I neglected it as I was rushing.

The costs have risen by more than 100% to an estimated €350 million. That was by 2018. In 2021, last Friday, we were told by the Minister for Health that the building infrastructure cost had been priced at €500 million. Further commissioning costs including fit-out and transferring an entire hospital to a new site will be a further €300 million.

That is €800 million, over four times the original cost or an increase of over 400%. There seems to be another lack of competence by the Government to manage major capital projects. How can we be assured, I ask the Minister, considering the runaway train that has been the budget for this project, that it will even stop at this sum and that it will not continue to escalate? Do we really think the taxpayers can be treated in this way? When we talk about the State and the State's money, there is no such thing. It is the people's money. It is the people's taxes that keep this country and the wheels rolling underneath it. I feel outraged on their behalf. This is a real issue surrounding the National Maternity Hospital and the taxpayers will, once again, be left to carry the can.

Eight years on, the building work on the site at the St Vincent's campus is still at a preliminary stage. I believe that one of the reasons this is becoming such a hot potato these days is because of the by-election that is going on here at present. It is wrong to treat people in this way. The people who need to avail of proper maternity services in a state-of-the-art facility should have it in a timely fashion but not at a cost that is allowed to run away like a train with no brakes.

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