Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The previous Government approved an investment decision of €1.433bn for the capital project, which is €450m more than advised to Government in April 2017. This includes all of the capital costs for the main hospital at St James's Hospital campus, the two Outpatient Departments and Urgent Care Centres at Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown and Tallaght University Hospital campuses, equipment for the three sites, and the construction of the carpark and retail spaces.

In addition to the capital project there is a broader programme of activity including new ICT and electronic health record development, and the integration and transfer of the services of the three children’s hospitals to the new sites which will bring a total overall programme cost of €1.73bn.

There are several items not included in this figure as there was no price certainly for them and nor can there be for the duration of the project, including excessive construction inflation (>4%) and the impact of Covid-19.

The table below outlines in tabular format the variance to the provisional budget on 2017 to the current budget, approved in 2018.

Table 21: Escalation in costs of the National Children's Hospital by Item 2017-2018govacc.per.gov.ie/wp-content/uploads/Periodic-Report-No.6-Final-Oct-2018-May-2019.pdf