LAST UPDATE | 21 Sep

LABOUR PARTY LEADER Ivana Bacik said that Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly “must take responsibility” for another delay in the construction of the New Children’s Hospital. 

The Children’s Hospital, which had a planning application lodged in 2011, and then a subsequent application lodged in 2015 after a significant delay, had been marked for completion by 2020. The project was allocated a budget of €650 million. 

Almost ten years later, the new date for the opening of the hospital, which is said to be 90% completed, has now been pushed forward to 2026. 

A series of claims from Dutch-based contractor BAM and delays due to Covid-19 have delayed the project significantly. The cost of the project has surged out of control to €2.2 billion to date. 

Speaking this afternoon on RTÉ’s Saturday with Colm Ó Mongáin, Bacik said that accountability was needed as the public have once again been let down at the elusive hospital.

“I think we need to look here at why the Minister of Health is taking such a hands off approach because ultimately, the health minister is the government line minister responsible for the spend in health,” she said. 

The Children’s Hospital overspend has been extraordinary and desperately frustrating for people who want to see value for money.”

She continued: “We need to hear from the Minister is why this further delay is now being projected, and how he proposes, by the way, to reassure us that there’ll be no further public money spent.”

Green Party Minister of State Ossian Smyth echoed Donnelly’s claim that the delay is due to failure by the contractor.

“This is a business project which was contracted in 2017. It was supposed to complete in 2022,” Smyth said. He said he recognised that the pandemic contributed to an unavoidable delay, but finished: “That’s not acceptable.”

Bacik argued that the fault lies with the current Minister for Health and said that he would be called before the Dáil next week to explain the delay.

Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on Health, TD David Cullinane, wrote on X that the matter was a “national scandal”.

“Children will now have to wait until 2026 before it sees a single patient despite the Billions spent. Incompetence!” he said.

The failure to deliver the new Children’s Hospital within budget & on time is a national scandal. Overseen by Simon Harris, Leo Varadkar & Stephen Donnelly. Children will now have to wait until 2026 before it sees a single patient despite the Billions spent. Incompetence!

— David Cullinane T.D. (@davidcullinane) September 21, 2024

The New Children’s Hospital will join Dublin’s three existing children’s hospitals under one roof: Temple Street, Crumlin, and the National Children’s Hospital. 

The hospital board is due to appear before the Oireachtas Health Committee next week.