A Donegal County Councillor has called for an inquiry into the expenditure overrun and delays with the new National Children’s Hospital, which was described as “nothing short of a scandal”.
Cllr Gerry McMonagle was speaking to the Regional Health Forum West yesterday when he hit out at the “disgraceful” length of time it has taken for the children’s hospital to be built.
Construction began in 2016. Last week, the Government announced the opening of the National Children’s Hospital had been delayed again, possibly to 2026.
The Oireachtas Committee on Health is meeting today to discuss the construction delays and the €2.2 billion price tag of the hospital so far.
Cllr McMonagle commented: “It will be a fantastic hospital when it opens but the length of time it has taken, and the problems and delays with the construction, one has to look at the board and indeed the Minister for Health to see did they take their eye off the ball here.”
“It’s very poor of the government and the Taoiseach and Minister of Health to turn around now at this late stage appoint the blame on the contractors.
“I wonder who was the oversight body? You would imagine that would be the hospital’s board and they have the experience necessary to oversee a project like this, you would think.”
New children’s hospital (NCH) project. Photo: newchildrenshospital.ie
Cllr McMonagle said the real people who are suffering from the delays are the patients, and also questioned plans to staff the hospital.
“All along we have children waiting on serious operations and treatments that this hospital will be able to provide,” Cllr McMonagle said.
He added: “There needs to be an inquiry into why this hospital was allowed to overrun to the extent it has been, and we still don’t have a date for it to open. I don’t even believe there is a transition plan in place for when the hospital will be completed because it will take somewhere between 6 and 9 months for the handover from the contractors to it being used as a working hospital. We don’t even know if we’ve got the healthcare staff to staff it. This really is a disaster.”
