Leanann an farce faoi ospidéal náisiúnta na leanaí. Ní féidir leis an bhord a insint dúinn go fóill cén uair a bheas an t-ospidéal seo críochnaithe agus cén chostas deiridh a bheidh aige. Níl dabht ar bith ach go bhfuil gá leis an ospidéal seo a bheith foscailte do leanaí na hÉireann. Tá cuntasacht de dhíth fosta ón phobal agus na moilleanna agus na costais ag dul in airde agus in airde.

People are absorbing two serious scandals regarding taxpayers' money. The payment fiasco at RTÉ has dominated politics for weeks and the debacle of the construction of the national children's hospital deepens with costs that are out of control. Members of the hospital's development board will appear before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health tomorrow. Their opening statement is mind-blowing. It charts a farcical story of delay, massive cost overrun, a developer allowed to run amok and a government that has no control whatsoever over the construction of what will be one of the most expensive hospitals in the world.

At least €2 billion of taxpayers' money has been invested in this hospital and yet the board, the Government or the developer still cannot tell us when the doors will open and when the children of Ireland will be able to use it. Nor can they tell us what the final bill will be. They say that the developer, BAM, has failed to deliver a contract programme that is compliant to deliver the hospital on time and on budget. We have zero clarity on the final cost of this project. The board has now submitted a further request to the Department for more money to get the hospital built. The board is writing cheques to BAM while at the same time expressing anger with BAM over how the developer is failing to deliver. It beggars belief. It is clear that nobody is in charge of the project and that it has become a runaway train.

The Minister for Health is asleep at the wheel on the issue. Last week he made light of the concerns that my party and I raised regarding the design flaws in half of the hospital's operating theatres and the serious consequences this could have. We now learn from the board's opening statement that there is not one expert review, but two expert reviews into this same issue. Meanwhile, the Government is happy just to stand on the sidelines, shrug the shoulders and say, "Sure, write another couple of cheques for another couple of hundred million; what does it matter?" The public looking on at this farce know they are being ripped off and being taken for fools.

When the Taoiseach was Minister for Health this hospital was supposed to have cost us €650 million. It now has a price tag of €2 billion. Costs have more than trebled. We were supposed to have a national children's hospital years ago.

Then it became August 2022, then May 2024 and now the board says it cannot even guarantee that timeframe. Once again, the public is looking on and seeing a complete mess and a Government that is holding nobody to account for the mismanagement of hundreds of millions of euro of taxpayers' money.

The scandal at RTÉ and the debacle in relation to the national children's hospital are the outworking of that type of the insider culture of entitlement and that type of incompetence fostered by successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments down through the years. The broken culture we have here is the reason we have a housing emergency, our health services are creaking at the seams and countless young people are deciding to emigrate, believing they have been forced to do so. People want change. The Taoiseach can shake his head all he wants but young people are making the decision to leave because of this type of culture. They want change. They want better for themselves, their families and the children of this State. They want the children’s hospital built.

We have more than 100,000 children on hospital waiting lists and 290 children with scoliosis waiting for life-changing surgery. The Ombudsman pointed out that one of them who was waiting five years. That is a disgrace. The national children's hospital needs to be completed and opened for those children and many more.

My question is very simple. Will the Taoiseach tell us, as a former Minister for Health and current Taoiseach, when this hospital will open its doors to the public? Is he confident the May date the Minister gave just two weeks ago will be achieved? What is the final bill? Will he hold anybody to account for the fact costs have now tripled?

I thank the Deputy. The new children’s hospital will be an incredible state-of-the-art hospital, one of the best in the world, and nobody will be sorry that it was built. When people see it and parents experience the treatments their children receive there, nobody will say it was not worth it. I guarantee the Deputy that. It will be Ireland’s first digital public hospital, with 380 individual en suite rooms with rooms for parents to stay overnight in each room, 60 critical care beds and 90 three-day beds.

There is a good deal of focus on the cost, which has been affected by Covid-19, the war in Ukraine and inflation. As Deputies know, delay is the biggest contributor to the cost and the project will take longer than planned and cost more than projected. Infrastructure projects like this are huge, complex and difficult. We see this in projects of this scale internationally but I reassure the House everything is being done to ensure the project is completed as soon as possible.

As things stand, the new hospital is 85% complete and the focus of works continues to be on internal fit-out and commissioning of mechanical and electrical services. Medical equipment is now also being installed. The elevated helipad, which will serve the children's hospital and St. James’s, is progressing to its final stages of assembly. Substantial completion is informed by the contractor’s programme and the last construction programme received from BAM, the contractor, suggested substantial competition could be achieved by March 2024. BAM has since revised this to May 2024. Once substantial competition is achieved, the hospital has to be handed over and there will be a period of months before it is fully commissioned.

To answer the Deputy’s question, we expect it to be completed and handed over next year and open to patients towards the end of next year, or early 2025 at the latest.

The budget for the hospital is €1.433 billion, of which €1.32 billion has been drawn down to date. That was the budget we agreed in 2018. It is clear, however, that the budget will have to be increased and that €1.433 billion will not be adequate. It is important to bear in mind that when people use the figure of €2 billion, which I hear a lot, it does not take account of a number of things, such as that the total cost is very much related to time, given the inflation clause. People also think that €2 billion figure applies only to the main campus at St. James’s but it does not. It also includes the urgent care centre in Blanchardstown, which is already open, running and operating well, as well as the urgent care centre in Tallaght, which is open and operating well. It includes the decommissioning of Crumlin and Temple Street.

It even includes the money that was spent on the failed attempt to build on the Mater site about 20 years ago. When people use the €2 billion figure, it is used in a misleading way.

The Taoiseach's approach here is one of shrugging the shoulders and keep writing the cheques with no one held to account. That is why the public are outraged when they see this and why they are outraged by what they are seeing unfold in RTÉ. It is that type of insider culture. At the very heart of this is 100,000 children who are on waiting lists. There are 290 children with scoliosis who need life-changing operations and there is a hospital that was supposed to be built when the Taoiseach was Minister for Health and announced this project for €650 million. It has ballooned. It is out of control. The cheques just keep getting written and there is no accountability whatever. Two weeks ago, we were hearing the completion date was March, then the Minister said it was still March and then a couple of days later it was May. Then we heard from the Taoiseach that it might be the end of the year and for the first time we are hearing that it might be 2025.

The problem at the core of this is that the Government does not have a clue what is happening with the national children's hospital. It cannot tell us how much it will cost and when it will be built. The one thing we know is that it is out of control. It was supposed to cost €650 million. We should have three national children's hospitals for the price we are paying for this one. No one is disputing we need it.

The board is telling us there is a go-slow going on with the national children's hospital and the Government is asleep at the wheel. Where is accountability going to come? Can the Taoiseach give us a final figure? Has he any confidence at all about when this hospital will open its doors to the people and the children of Ireland?

It is clear the cost of the hospital was substantially underestimated back in 2015 or 2016 at around €600 million. That was seven years ago. It is not a revelation to anyone that the hospital will take a lot more than the original €600 million estimate which was an underestimate at the time. We know what it costs now to build a massive hospital of this scale and it is a lot more than €600 million.

We do not know.

Nobody knows. That is the problem.

Please. Order.

To answer the Deputy's questions again, the hospital will be complete and handed over to the Government next year.

When?

We would anticipate patients using the hospital in the latter part of next year or early 2025. I am confident that those timelines will be correct.

The budget allocated to the hospital is €1.433 billion. That is the budget allocated to it in 2018. It is going to cost more than €1.433 billion. Why do we not know how much more it will cost at this stage? First, the longer this goes on, the more it will cost to build because of the inflation clause in the contract and, second, we are standing up to the contractor. The contractor has put in many claims for additional money almost all of which we are fighting and almost all of which have been ruled in our favour.

How much extra is the board looking for?

I call Deputy Holly Cairns.