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Dáil
‹ Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation

Children's hospital overruns

Summary

Deputy Tóibín criticised the huge cost overrun and delay on the national children's hospital. The Taoiseach accepted responsibility, defended the project as a major long-term facility, and said it will ultimately be worth the cost.

In 2016, as Minister for Health, the Taoiseach said the national children's hospital would be built in 2020 for €700 million and, short of an asteroid, it would happen by 2020. Obviously, this was untrue. It was costly rubbish, to be honest. The cost of the national children's hospital has risen to more than €2.2 billion and there is no specific date for its opening. There is an overrun in the budget of €1.5 billion and thousands of children in the interim are suffering significantly owing to the lack of treatment for their illnesses. This is not the only action of complete waste this Government has been involved in. It is squandering taxpayers' money on an industrial scale in a lot of different projects. There are plenty of excuses for it. Indeed, the Government is fluent in excuses. It is also allergic to accountability, which is the key issue. If there is no accountability, there is no change. Given that the Taoiseach was Minister for Health, the buck stops with him. Will he accept personal responsibility for this calamitous failure? What consequence will there be for him?

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Leo Varadkar The Taoiseach Fine Gael

Of course I accept responsibility for it. I am the Taoiseach and the head of Government. I accept responsibility for all that is good about this country and also for trying to put right all that is wrong. That is my job as Taoiseach. The national children's hospital project is not a waste of money. It will be an absolutely fabulous facility.

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The overruns are a waste of money.

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Leo Varadkar The Taoiseach Fine Gael

It will make an enormous difference. It will be there for 50 or 100 years. It will be comparable with and better than any children's hospital in the world. I know it has cost too much and taken too long. Like many other big projects, such as terminal 2 in Dublin Airport or the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dún Laoghaire, nobody will regret it when they see it.

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