Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Tá tuilleadh moille tagtha ar ospidéal na leanaí, agus tuilleadh airgid ag teastáil. Tá an Rialtas ina gcodladh agus é seo uilig ag titim amach agus ag dul le sruth.

Many years ago, when Deputy Leo Varadkar was Minister for Health, he said that short of an asteroid hitting the planet, the national children's hospital would be built by 2020. Today we have learned that the fiasco continues in respect of the building of the national children's hospital as it spirals further out of control. The board overseeing the project has told the Committee of Public Accounts that the contractor has pushed out the completion date yet again for the hospital, this time to February 2025. The Tánaiste knows that after that date, there is another nine months to commission the hospital before it is ready to open and take in patients. The chief officer of the board has told the committee that he cannot even guarantee that date will be met in the first instance. It is an absolute farce. Today we have learned that costs continue to spiral for the taxpayer, that there is no certainty about when the hospital will be ready to take patients, and promises the Government has given have been broken. The safe bet now is that the hospital will not be open to patients until 2026.

In the middle of all this, under the Government's watch, there are 100,000 children languishing on waiting lists. There are 251 children with scoliosis who are waiting for life-altering operations. It was to them that the now Taoiseach, Deputy Harris, cynically gave that promise that he has broken over and over again that none of them would have to wait more than four months for their life-changing treatment. They need that hospital more than anyone. They need that hospital built.

The initial cost of this hospital was supposed to be €650 million. Now we learn that the cost has increased to more than €2.2 billion. I do not know if the Tánaiste has seen it but the board today could not actually guarantee that it would not go higher. This is crazy stuff. The Government has lost all control in respect of the cost and delivery of this project. Is it any wonder? The Minister and the Government are asleep at the wheel. This has been a slow-moving car crash from day one. The Minister for Health and his predecessors have been asleep at the wheel. We have raised this issue over and over again. The last time I raised it with the then Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, last year, he dismissed our concerns. When we warned that the project was a runaway train, that it required the Minister to roll up his sleeves and get stuck in, to take a hands-on approach, he dismissed our concerns. He told me that the hospital would be treating patients this year, another broken promise.

The public, the taxpayer, the children waiting for this hospital cannot believe a word that comes from the Government when it comes to the national children's hospital. Every single target, every single financial cost has been broken or surpassed. In any other walk of life, people would be held to account but there is nobody being held to account. The board told the Committee of Public Accounts earlier that not one penalty has been lodged against the contractor because of the delays. Not one person is being held to account for this fiasco, with billions of euro of taxpayers' money being squandered on overruns in a hospital that is badly needed, with delay after delay. Who is ultimately accountable for this failure? I put it to the Tánaiste that his Government is, that he is and that the person sitting beside him, the Minister for Health who is completely asleep at the wheel, is accountable for this. Not once did he meet the board last year. Billions of euro with additional cheques being run, new dates after new dates, delay after delay, and the board not even able to say if it will open in 2025, yet the Minister did not meet the board once last year. That is how incompetent this Government is. Will the Government and the Minister accept responsibility for the fiasco that is the national children's hospital? Will the Tánaiste commit that the Government will take action and the Minister with responsibility will address this fiasco for once and for all?

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