Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Independent)
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638. To ask the Minister for Health the estimated completion cost of the children's hospital; if he will provide a breakdown of this; when the planning application will be lodged; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14895/15]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The National Paediatric Hospital Development Board is the statutory body responsible for planning, designing, building and equipping the new children's hospital. The new hospital will be co-located with St James's Hospital, and ultimately tri-located with a maternity hospital to be developed on campus. In addition to the main hospital, the project includes two satellite centres at the campuses of Tallaght and Connolly Hospitals.

A design team is working on detailed design development with planning submission scheduled for June 2015. Subject to planning, work is scheduled to commence at the main site at St. James's, and at satellite centre sites at Connolly and Tallaght, in January 2016.

The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, has committed to making €200 million available from the sale of the National Lottery for the new children's hospital, adding to the existing €450m Exchequer funding and underlining the Government's commitment to the project. Current estimates are that the core hospital, including both satellite centres, will be delivered within this envelope. For reasons of commercial sensitivity, I do not intend to provide a detailed breakdown of costs at this stage but I can confirm that this estimate includes provision for inflation, VAT and contingencies; it does not include equipment or ICT which can be purchased, licensed or leased separately. Philanthropic and commercial funding streams will be targeted as appropriate for supporting elements of the project to include car parking, academic and research facilities, and estimates will be reviewed and refined at each stage of the project.