Tá tuilleadh moille tagtha ar ospidéal na leanaí, agus tuilleadh airgid ag teastáil. Tá an Rialtas ina gcodladh agus é seo uilig ag titim amach agus ag dul le sruth.

Many years ago, when Deputy Leo Varadkar was Minister for Health, he said that short of an asteroid hitting the planet, the national children's hospital would be built by 2020. Today we have learned that the fiasco continues in respect of the building of the national children's hospital as it spirals further out of control. The board overseeing the project has told the Committee of Public Accounts that the contractor has pushed out the completion date yet again for the hospital, this time to February 2025. The Tánaiste knows that after that date another nine months will be needed to commission the hospital before it will be ready to open and take in patients. The chief officer of the board has told the committee that he cannot even guarantee that date will be met in the first instance. It is an absolute farce. Today we have learned that costs continue to spiral for the taxpayer, that there is no certainty about when the hospital will be ready to take patients and promises the Government has given have been broken. The safe bet now is that the hospital will not be open to patients until 2026.

In the middle of all this, under the Government's watch, there are 100,000 children languishing on waiting lists. There are 251 children with scoliosis who are waiting for life-altering operations. It was to them that the now Taoiseach, Deputy Harris, cynically gave that promise that he has broken over and over again that none of them would have to wait more than four months for their life-changing treatment. They need that hospital more than anyone. They need that hospital built.

The initial cost of this hospital was supposed to be €650 million. Now we learn that the cost has increased to more than €2.2 billion. I do not know if the Tánaiste has seen it but the board today could not actually guarantee that it would not go higher. This is crazy stuff. The Government has lost all control in respect of the cost and delivery of this project. Is it any wonder? The Minister and the Government are asleep at the wheel. This has been a slow-moving car crash from day one. The Minister for Health and his predecessors have been asleep at the wheel. We have raised this issue over and over again. The last time I raised it with the then Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, last year, he dismissed our concerns. When we warned that the project was a runaway train, that it required the Minister to roll up his sleeves and get stuck in, to take a hands-on approach, he dismissed our concerns. He told me that the hospital would be treating patients this year, another broken promise.

The public, the taxpayer, the children waiting for this hospital cannot believe a word that comes from the Government when it comes to the national children's hospital. Every single target, every single financial cost has been broken or surpassed. In any other walk of life, people would be held to account but there is nobody being held to account. The board told the Committee of Public Accounts earlier that not one penalty has been lodged against the contractor because of the delays. Not one person is being held to account for this fiasco, with billions of euro of taxpayers' money being squandered on overruns in a hospital that is badly needed, with delay after delay. Who is ultimately accountable for this failure? I put it to the Tánaiste that his Government is, that he is and that the person sitting beside him, the Minister for Health who is completely asleep at the wheel, is accountable for this. Not once did he meet the board last year. Billions of euro with additional cheques being run, new dates after new dates, delay after delay, and the board not even able to say if it will open in 2025, yet the Minister did not meet the board once last year. That is how incompetent this Government is. Will the Government and the Minister accept responsibility for the fiasco that is the national children's hospital? Will the Tánaiste commit that the Government will take action and the Minister with responsibility will address this fiasco for once and for all?

Ní aontaím leis an Teachta. Is é an rud is tábhachtaí ná go mbeimid in ann an t-ospidéal seo a chríochnú agus go háirithe, in ann déileáil go láidir le BAM. Maidir leis na dátaí atá ag an Teachta, go bunúsach tá BAM freagrach as an t-ospidéal seo a chruthú. B'fhéidir nach bhfuil sé ar intinn ag an Teachta é seo a dhéanamh, ach tá dáinséar ann go bhfuil sé ag argóint i bhfabhar BAM. What I am going to say to the Deputy is that he needs to be very careful in the sense that he is not being used as a pawn-----

You have tried that tack before.

-----in terms of a very strong and robust engagement between the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board, the Government and BAM. All the deadlines he came through with there are deadlines that BAM set. It is likely to be part of a commercial strategy by BAM to try to extract more funding and more money from the Irish people.

What are you doing about it?

I put it to the Deputy that I am not going to take debate and I suggest he does not take debate either. For the last few years there has been a very robust engagement through dispute resolution mechanisms. The Deputy will cite hundreds of millions that have been submitted in respect of claims but the net outcome of those claims is actually a fraction of the overall cost of the hospital. In other words, there has been a very robust, tenacious engagement between the contractor, the company in this case, and the development board through the various arbitration methods. Unfortunately, the bottom line is BAM has not resourced this project sufficiently for quite some time. I call on BAM to resource the site adequately and comprehensively to enable this hospital to be completed as fast as we possibly can. The Government is fair and is dealing with this in a fair manner. However, we are not going to tell BAM to finish this at any cost or throw to one side proper procedural approaches as to how claim and counterclaim are resolved and contracts are enforced. That is an important point.

We did not ask you to.

The deadlines to which the Deputy refers have all been submitted by BAM at different times. I am not sure whether he is saying we should go straight to the High Court or Supreme Court and suspend all work on the project. I do not know if that is the Deputy's suggestion to the Government. Our objective is to get the hospital completed as quickly as we possibly can. BAM has submitted about 2,782 claims, of which 2,182 have been substantiated at a value of approximately €785 million. That is the value assigned by BAM. Approximately 1,890 of those claims have been determined by the ER with the net result being an increase in the contract sum of approximately €22.8 million. In respect of BAM submitting, by their own account, €785 million, we have arbitrated every one of them. That takes time and tenacity but that is how we are doing it. In the first instance we are going to make sure the taxpayer gets value for money. We also want the hospital completed as quickly as possible. We are not going to roll over in the contractual engagements with BAM as the Deputy seems to be suggesting.

They have run rings around you.

This hospital is urgently required for the children of Ireland. It will be transformative compared to what we currently have in Crumlin or Temple Street. Of that there is no doubt. There have been significant advancements on the project. The Deputy did not quote the comments from the chair of the board in respect of the current update, that all the tower cranes have been removed from the site and so on.

Those words really came out of the Tánaiste's mouth, that his Government is determined that the taxpayer will get value for money in respect of the national children's hospital. Is he serious? It has gone from €650 million up to €2.2 billion and the chair of the board cannot guarantee that it will not go higher. If you want an example of Government incompetence, then look no further than the national children's hospital. Costs are blooming, the taxpayer is paying the bill, we have delay after delay, every single target missed, and we have a Minister over there who did not meet the board once last year because he is asleep at the wheel. He thinks it is somebody else's problem. The cheques keep on being written.

Children keep on being denied the hospital they deserve. This is the problem. The Government is completely asleep at the wheel.

I will ask the Tánaiste a very simple question because the board cannot guarantee this. Will this hospital start treating patients before 2026? The Taoiseach stood there last year and started saying the Opposition was being used as a pawn and all the rest of it. This was when we were saying that the Government needed to take a hard approach with the contractor, the Minister needed to get involved in this situation and the Government needed to use its muscle. The reply was that everything was fine and that patients would be treated this year. Patients will not be treated this year. The target has moved again. The board cannot guarantee the target and the likelihood is that no patient will be treated in that hospital by 2026.

The Deputy raised an issue on the ventilation grilles, if he remembers, and claimed that tens of millions of euro would be required. It subsequently turned out not to be the case. The point I would make to the Deputy is that inadvertently, whether it is the intention or not-----

Delays will mean it is more costly-----

Please, allow the Tánaiste to speak without interruption.

-----Sinn Féin is a pawn now of where the contractor, in my view, wants this to go.

Give over.

That is what is going on here.

It is not what penalty-----

The contractor has been delaying and has not been resourcing the project properly or comprehensively. It is hoping there will be this kind of engagement here in Dáil Éireann to keep pressure on the Government and the politicians-----

We are holding you to account.

-----to yield a bit quicker and give that contractor a bit more in terms of the claims it has made.

How pathetic is that?

The Deputy is playing that game.

That is pathetic.

All the timelines have been BAM timelines.

Through the Chair, please.

I am speaking through the Chair. These are not Government timelines.

They are.

They are BAM timelines.

The Government guaranteed those timelines.

In respect of the October timeline, through the Chair, that is a BAM deadline.

Even this morning, what the chair is saying is that BAM is indicating, and the Deputy said this himself-----

Go raibh maith agat.

I think the Oireachtas should back the Government in being-----

Back off would be more like it. That is what the Government wants. This is crazy stuff.

-----resolute on this issue with the contractor and not fall for the game being played in terms of commercial strategy.

I thank the Tánaiste.

The Government is asleep at the wheel and the Tánaiste will not answer the question concerning 2026.

Who wrote that line for the Deputy? He has used it about five times. Did someone up in your research office write it?

That was really pathetic.

I thank the Tánaiste. We are over time.

It is-----

Deputies, please. I am moving on. Can we listen to each other with respect?