Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I cannot give the Deputy the final cost today. It is a live project and, as he mentioned, there have been significant cost increases and changed contractual arrangements throughout the process. There is a wider issue with significant cost inflation in the construction sector. As we all recognise, there is a problem with the planning, development, costing and delivery of major public construction projects. I am afraid to say that the children's hospital is a critical example of that. This does not just relate to James's Street. Going back further, the original proposal was for a site at the Mater hospital, which had benefits and coherence in terms of the transport plans, including a metro station. that were planned for the same site. Both of those projects ended up not proceeding, which is one of the reasons for the incredible cost overruns with this hospital. The long time it has taken to get through planning to construction is one of the most critical factors in the overrun.

However, the project will be delivered. A significant milestone has been reached in the topping off of the main fabric of the building. It is a time for us to focus on getting the hospital delivered. The 2024 timeframe is far from ideal and constitutes a long delay, but for the health of the children of our country, it is important that we get it completed. There are complex and difficult contractual arrangements. No one in government will try to ignore that reality. We will have to manage them out to the hospital's completion. At that point, we will at least have a world-leading facility for our health system.

There have been developments. The acute centre in Connolly hospital is up and running. It is part of the overall children's hospital strategy. However, the main project has been bedevilled by significant delays. I do not disagree with the Deputy that one of the lessons we need to learn has to do with the two-phase contract process, wherein the broad outline was agreed but further contractual difficulties arose during the process. We should learn lessons from this.

We have had significant difficulties with Covid, including the availability of workers and, similar to the rest of the economy, the construction sector operating on a stop-start basis. We have a wider problem of skills shortages, which is increasing prices in the construction sector in particular. None of these difficulties will be resolved immediately, but critical to the Government's next steps will be ensuring that the economy has the necessary skills, we learn lessons about managing cost overruns in large public projects and we deliver a new and better planning system so that there will not be an incredibly long process again, given that this is one of the reasons the cost overruns have been so high. It is not ideal and has been an unsatisfactory process throughout, but it will be concluded with the delivery of a first class children's hospital. That is the most important aspect on which we should focus.

I cannot give the Deputy a specific price today because there are still contractual issues to be resolved. It would be a false figure if I gave one. However, we will minimise the cost to the best of the Government's ability and deliver the hospital, albeit after a long delay that no one has wanted. Now that the building has been topped off and its basic fabric has been built, we need to complete the hospital for the children of this country.

See this speech in context