Maire Devine (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

-----that we have been listening in recent days to the outrageous, gobsmacking cost of the national children's hospital.

I was out with the nurses at St. James’s Hospital this morning. As Senators will know, they are out in protest. This is the first of two days that nurses will be on strike this week and next week they will be joined by the Psychiatric Nurses Association for three days on strike. Almost 50,000 nurses are protesting on the picket lines. It did not dawn on us initially this morning but as we looked around, we saw hundreds of nurses protesting on one side, while on the other side, we saw a massive crater in the ground where our national children’s hospital is to be built. The irony of this juxtaposition of these two sights was not lost on us.

Nurses are demanding €250 million to achieve pay parity. Every year, €120 million is spent on agency nurses alone. Someone has not done the maths on those figures and they have certainly not done the maths on the national children’s hospital, the cost of which could run to €2 billion. The public cannot get to grips with that. Where were the checks in the procurement process? Who was looking after the public purse when it was being robbed and dipped into? The irony of that is not lost on nurses or members of the public. I support my colleague, even though the confidence and supply agreement needs an injection. What other capital projects will we lose because of this massive cost overrun? I advise Senator Colm Burke that no amount of spin about how beautiful this hospital will be will create a soft landing for people given that the cost will run to €2 billion?