The government’s handling of the National Children’s Hospital is a “slow-moving car crash”, as further delays are expected, Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty has said.
In response, Tánaiste Micheál Martin said Mr Doherty was being used as “a pawn” by the contractor to extract more public money for the scheme.
The original substantial completion date was for October 29 this year, but developer BAM has “indicated a further delay” to this date, TDs are to be told.
The total spent on the hospital is €2.2 billion, after the government approved more than €500 million in additional spending in February.
The amount includes millions of euros for an expected pay-out to the contractor over ongoing disputes, as well as other contingency funding.
During Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil on Thursday, Mr Doherty said: “Many years ago, when Leo Varadkar was actually minister for health, he said short of an asteroid hitting the planet, the National Children’s Hospital would be built by 2020.
“Well, today we’ve learned that the fiasco continues in relation to the building of the National Children’s Hospital as it spirals further out of control.”
Mr Doherty said continued delays showed the government’s handling of the project “is an absolute farce”.
He said: “We’ve learned that costs continue to spiral for the taxpayer, that no certainty when the hospital will be ready to take patients, and promises that your government has given have been broken, and the safe bet now is that the hospital will not be open to patients until 2026.”
He added: “This is crazy stuff, Tánaiste.
“The government has lost all control in relation to the cost and the delivery of this project and is it any wonder?
“Because your minister and your government is asleep at the wheel.
“This has been a slow moving car crash from day one and it is the Minister for Health and his predecessors who’ve been asleep at the wheel.”
Mr Martin replied: “You need to be very careful in the sense that you’re not being used as a pawn, in terms of a very strong and robust engagement between the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board, the government and BAM.
“Because all the deadlines that you came through with there are deadlines that BAM set and it’s likely to be part of a commercial strategy by BAM to try and extract more funding and more money from the Irish people.
“I will put it to you very directly that I’m not going to take the bait and I would suggest you don’t take the bait either.”
Despite saying there had been “very robust, tenacious engagement” between the BAM and the development board, Mr Martin said: “The bottom line is BAM has not resourced this project sufficiently for quite some time.”
He said: “I would call on BAM to resource the site adequately and comprehensively to enable this hospital to be completed as fast as we possibly can.
“And the government is fair and is dealing with this in a fair manner, but we’re not going to say ‘finish this at any cost’.”
The Tánaiste added: “We’re going to, in the first instance, make sure the taxpayer gets value for money, but we also want the hospital completed as quickly as we possibly can, and we’re not going to roll over into contractual engagements with BAM.”
In response to Mr Doherty stating it was likely no patients would be treated in the hospital by 2026, Mr Martin said: “you’re a pawn now of, in my view, where the contractor wants this to go.
“That’s what’s going on here.”
The National Paediatric Hospital Development Board has said the main driver of increasing costs has been the ongoing delay to the completion of the hospital.
By Claudia Savage, PA
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