Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Monday's events were very good. It is tempting for us, looking across the water at the chaos our friends in Britain are experiencing as a result of Brexit, to run away with ourselves, start to feel condescending and clap ourselves on the back for how well we do things. Anybody who listened to Jimmy Sheehan, the founder of the Blackrock Clinic, discussing the new national children's hospital on radio this morning or who was present at yesterday's meeting of the Joint Committee on Health would come to the conclusion that this project has been an unmitigated disaster from the outset and that it reflects badly on the entire political class. I felt sorry for the representatives from the HSE and the Department of Health officials who tried to defend a bad situation at yesterday's meeting. However, I was obliged to wonder at the righteous tone of politicians who seem to have forgotten that the political class got us into this mess. In that context, every member of Cabinet received a dossier from the Connolly for Kids group before the final decisions were taken. Some 60,000 signatures were presented to the former Taoiseach, Deputy Enda Kenny, who reluctantly accepted them. A detailed submission was made to An Bord Pleanála and oral submissions were heard. The point was made all along that the risk of spiralling costs, which look likely to go over €2 billion, was not the only issue. This matter cannot be spun in the way that is being attempted, namely, to the effect that the project will cost a fortune but that we will have the best hospital in the world, particularly when there are problems that money cannot solve because of the choice of location, the fact that the largest search and rescue helicopters cannot land there, parking issues, the fact that there is no co-location with a maternity hospital and a lack of room for expansion. All of these problems relating to the fact that a greenfield site was not chosen. As Dr. Sheehan stated this morning, it is difficult to know whether anything can be done now.

I listened to Senator Humphreys refer to the fact that the HSE service plan does not make provision for the dementia advisory services that a re needed. I know something about the challenges in getting the services needed to care for persons with dementia. The scandalous waste of money in this project is not an indictment of the HSE or the Department of Health in the first instance but of the political parties. The Government and Deputy Michéal Martin were unhelpful. Deputy McGuinness was the only person in Fianna Fáil who paid any attention to the Connolly for Kids group. Sinn Féin was less than useless and yet one of its members spoke in the righteous tones to which I referred earlier at yesterday's meeting. There are questions to be answered about the political parties and, yet again, the unacceptable waste of public money, bad decision-making and group-think that has marked this matter from beginning to end.