Donegal Deputy Pearse Doherty has slammed the soaring costs of the National Children’s Hospital at the St James’s Hospital as a ‘complete catastrophe’.
The cost of the new hospital, which is due to open in 2022, has now been estimated at around €1.433 billion by the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board.
The figure had escalated by €450 million from the €983m approved by the Government in 2017. The final cost is expected to rise to at least €1.7bn.
Sinn Fein’s Pearse Doherty TD has today called for a full and public investigation into the overspend.
Speaking in the Dáil Teachta Doherty said; ‘The situation regarding the overrun in terms of the National Children’s Hospital is a catastrophic failure of this government and those overseeing the project.
“The explanations given to the health committee were absurd and farcical to tell you the truth.
“We know that the original tender from balm was one hundred and thirty one million euro lower than the nearest competitor. No did nobody in the department raise an issue as to how the tender price came in one hundred and thirty one million lower than what anybody else could build a hospital for.
“I recall Minister Leo Varadkar at the time raising issues in terms of the costs of this and actually suggesting it could come up under cost at one stage.
“Given that we know that there is an overrun of over a billion euro and that could grow further that there is a need for accountability and there is a need for a full, open and transparent public inquiry into how this project has got completely out of control and who is responsible.”
“That was public money so will you commit to the government allowing for a full and public investigation into this a complete catastrophe?”