Children’s hospital cost estimate
Mary Lou McDonald challenged the Government over the opaque and rising cost of the children’s hospital, and Stephen Donnelly said the formal figure is above €1.4 billion but no final estimate exists because negotiations are ongoing.
Let me try this again with the Taoiseach. I have told him that the HSE is now warning about the increasing and unpredictable cost of the national children's hospital. It is of such a scale that the cost will eat up one third, or perhaps more, of the budget and put a question mark over other much-needed infrastructure. It seems that the Minister for Health has a figure. He will not share it, though. Furthermore, he will not go before the Committee of Public Accounts to discuss this matter. That is the wrong move and most unhelpful. Vast sums of money are being spent on a public project that we have been waiting for for more than a decade. Is it 12 years we are over schedule? We are still waiting and it seems the cost continues to mount. If the Taoiseach cannot agree to holding statements on this matter, perhaps the Minister will take to his feet and shed some light on it.
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I thank the Deputy. We have all known for some time that the cost was going to go above €1.4 billion, which was the formal cost signed off on by the Government. Intensive negotiations are happening between the contractor and the development board. The sums of money involved are large. I do not have a figure. No one does, as there has been no resolution to many of the issues. The contractor undoubtedly has legitimate claims in some cases, and those claims should be respected. In other cases, the clear advice I have is that there are claims for very sizable amounts of money that the development board and the State flatly reject and do not believe we have to pay. No one is trying to be difficult.
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Did the Minister not claim he had an estimate?
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-----figure. At the same time, we are not giving an estimated figure because we do not want to prejudice the negotiation. The contractors would like nothing more than the State to say we believe we will have to pay X amount of money, because doing so would prejudice the negotiations. We must leave the board in the strongest possible position to negotiate on behalf of the State.