Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The fiasco surrounding the delivery of the national children’s hospital continues. It is a saga that has rumbled on for two decades. We have already seen the cost for the hospital balloon and almost double. Despite all this investment, the children of Ireland still do not have their hospital. It was supposed to be open by 2014. Then it was August 2022. Now we are told it might open in mid-2024. Ten years after it was supposed to open, we still wait with real uncertainty, even around the 2024 date.

If this debacle was not bad enough, this morning we woke to more worrying news. It is reported that the Department of Health seems to believe that there will be additional funding required from the Government and that it is bracing itself for a sharp increase in costs that will push the final bill beyond €2 billion.

Remember that there are some 900 claims from the developers to tune of nearly €500 million which have not yet been resolved. This whole saga has been an exercise in kicking the can down the road and God only knows where all of this will end up.

Years after planning was granted, nearly three decades since the idea the children’s hospital was first proposed, and after €1.1 billion has already been spent, the Government still does not know what the final cost will be, or when the hospital will be completed.

Let me be very clear on this. Ireland needs its children’s hospital. It is a vital part of our national health infrastructure but it has not yet been delivered. We have witnessed an ongoing saga of bungles, incompetence and broken promises.

Meanwhile, we have 100,000 children on hospital waiting lists. This includes children waiting for ear, nose and throat, ENT, treatment, dermatology care, and those children waiting in agony for scoliosis surgery. We know that delivery of the national children’s hospital would provide the capacity needed to get these kids off waiting lists and into theatres for their life-changing operations. Still, they wait and wait, the costs of the children’s hospital go up and up, and the delay goes on and on. If anything is emblematic of this Government's inability to forward-plan and deliver modern infrastructure on budget and on time, then surely the national children’s hospital is it.

There has rightly been much focus on the Government's inability to build houses, but clearly, it is not very good at building hospitals either. The question people ask is this: who sets out to build anything, no less a national hospital, with no idea of how much it will cost and no idea when it will be finished.

Leanann scannal ospidéal náisiúnta na leanaí ar aghaidh agus ar aghaidh. Caithfidh muid an costas deiridh a fháil. Cathain a bheidh an t-ospidéal críochnaithe agus cathain a bheidh sé oscailte?

The Government and the Minister for Health need to get their acts together. We need clarity and answers. When will the Taoiseach get to grips with this debacle? What will the final cost of the national children’s hospital be and when will it be finished and operational?

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