The long-running debacle surrounding the construction and, more importantly, the completion of the national children's hospital rumbles on. This afternoon we learned that the staggering cost of the hospital has increased again by almost €500 million. This pushes the current cost up to €2.2 billion, a cost that is frankly unbelievable. What is even more outrageous is that we can have no confidence that this will in fact be the final cost. Last week in the Oireachtas health committee the Minister, Deputy Donnelly, stated he could not say with certainty that the completion date of October of this year would be met. He repeated this on radio today. Incredibly, he also admitted that he had yet to hold a formal meeting with the board overseeing the project this year. When a Minister is taking such a hands-off approach, it is little wonder we have spiralling and out-of-control costs, constantly shifting timelines and a complete lack of confidence in delivery.

This debacle shows that the entire leadership of the Government is asleep at the wheel. As this fiasco goes from bad to worse, children are waiting longer than ever for care. Eight out of ten children are waiting longer than the Sláintecare target for an orthopaedic appointment. Parents of children with scoliosis and spina bifida are at their wits' end as their children wait in agony for life-changing and lifesaving treatment. The promise that Simon Harris made in 2017 that no child would wait any longer than four months for their procedure rings as hollow as the Taoiseach's own promise that short of an asteroid hitting the planet, this hospital would be built and complete by 2020. It is now 2024 and the hospital has gone from the €700 million when the Taoiseach made those comments to at least €2.2 billion and the only asteroid to hit us is the mind-boggling financial cost to the taxpayer and the endless disappointment of children and parents.

This strikes at the heart of the Government's credibility. It is a Government that cannot keep people safe, cannot put a roof over people's heads and cannot build a hospital without turning it into a farce. Every Member of the Dáil, every citizen and, more importantly, every child and their parents want the hospital built, open and treating children as quickly as possible but public confidence is now on the floor. The hospital is not complete, the doors are not open and children are not being treated. Despite the billions being spent we do not have a date we can have confidence in for when the hospital will be up and running. Tá an praiseach a bhaineann le hospidéal náisiúnta na bpáistí ag dul in olcas le costas a mhéadú le €500 milliún eile. Caithfidh an Rialtas a rá le páistí agus le tuismitheoirí cathain a bheidh an t-ospidéal críochnaithe agus oscailte.

I have very straightforward questions for the Taoiseach and I believe the children and parents waiting for years for this hospital to open deserve straight answers. When will the national children's hospital be completed, open and treating children? Can the Taoiseach tell us today with certainty what the full and final cost will be?

The new national children's hospital will be completed later this year and will be open and treating children next year. When it is open, it will be an incredible state-of-the-art hospital. It will care for our children for the next 50 to 100 years and it will be comparable if not superior to many of the best children's hospitals in Europe and around the world.

It will be our first digital public hospital, with 300 individual rooms for every child that needs to be admitted and space for their parents to sleep in the room beside them. It will have more theatres, more scanners and facilities we could not even imagine now, compared with what we have at the moment. I look forward to the hospital opening next year and seeing patients being treated there for the first time.

The Cabinet today agreed to increase the maximum allocation for the hospital to €1.9 billion capital, that is, for the build, and €0.3 billion current, that is, for the commissioning, decommissioning and transition to the new hospital, which will happen next year. The total cost will be €2.2 billion, of which €1.4 billion has already been drawn down. The project has taken much longer than anyone anticipated and there will be years of dispute with the contractor about payments even when the hospital is fully open. This will not impact on other projects because the cost of this is spread out over ten to 15 years. We expect handover to occur this year and expect it to be open to patients next year.

It is important when we talk about the entire cost of this project that we do not make the mistake of thinking it is just about building the very large building which we can now all see in Dublin 8 next to St. James's Hospital. It is also the satellite centre in Connolly in Blanchardstown open and treating patients and the satellite centre in Tallaght. It also involves some of the costs associated with the original Mater project and Crumlin and Temple St. hospitals have to be decommissioned too, so it is a huge project across five sites.

On the Deputy's earlier remark, waiting lists in Irish hospitals are going down. We have said that nobody should wait more than ten to 12 weeks to see a consultant if he or she needs to or to get an operation if he or she needs it. While I accept they are still too long, unlike most countries in the world, including the jurisdiction north of the Border, waiting lists in Ireland have fallen for the last two years in a row.

In paediatric spinal surgery, the waiting list has fallen in the past year. While that is not by close to enough, it is important that I correct misinformation because it is the norm in the Deputy's contributions here on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

In the spirit of accuracy, the Taoiseach should reflect the fact that waiting lists for children have not fallen and more children with scoliosis and spina bifida are waiting now than there were four years ago. That is the accurate fact of the matter.

The Taoiseach says the hospital will be completed this year. When? He says it will be operational next year. When? The Minister was far less assured in his commentary today. He caveated every statement with a maybe, a perhaps and a reliance on delivery by the construction developer. Can the Taoiseach give us dates and timelines? When will it be finished? When will it be open? Is he saying €2.2 billion is the final and full cost? He has caveated that with speculation around years of disputes in the courts. That strikes me as a very unsure and unsatisfactory answer. When he gets to his feet again, will the Taoiseach give us the month in which the hospital building will be finished, when it will be fitted out, complete, open and operational? Will he give us an absolute assurance that €2.2 billion is the final cost, inclusive of any protracted processes through the courts?

The hospital will be open later this year. October is the target month. It will be open to patients in 2025. The sum of €2.2 billion is the maximum allocation made by the Government for this project; we will not be allocating any more. Some €1.4 billion has been drawn down already and an additional €0.8 billion is available to complete the project, commission it and open it to children. That will happen next year.