‘No more money for children’s hospital’

Leo insists additional €500m will be last payment

LEO Varadkar has vowed that no more money will be allocated to the National Children’s Hospital after the price tag ballooned by another €500million to €2.24billion.

The Cabinet signed off an additional €500million yesterday to fund the longdelayed hospital, which was initially due to be delivered by 2015 at a total cost of €650million.

Mr Varadkar told the Dáil yesterday that no more additional funding will be provided, with the latest figure to be the ‘maximum’ that will be allocated to the project.

‘Cabinet today agreed to increase the maximum allocation for the hospital to €1.9billion capital, for the build, and €0.3billion current, for the commissioning, decommissioning and transition to the new hospital, which will happen next year,’ he said.

Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe said of the €500million: ‘I expect that the settlement that we have made here is the last significant settlement in relation to the overall cost.’

He added that a number of outstanding bills relating to building the hospital are being ‘vigorously contested’.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou

McDonald told the Taoiseach that the total cost ‘is frankly unbelievable’ and said what is ‘even more outrageous is that we can have no confidence that this will in fact be the final cost’.

The Taoiseach said that work will be completed on the hospital by October, the latest timeline provided by the contactor BAM, with the first patients being treated in 2025. He said: ‘October is the target month. It will be open to patients in 2025.’

The Taoiseach said that €1.4billion has already been drawn down and that the project ‘has taken much longer than anyone anticipated’ and predicted that ‘there will be years of dispute with the contractor about payments even when the hospital is fully open’.

The contractor BAM has made additional claims of €600million, with just €13million being consented to so far in determined claims. Mr Varadkar said the increase in funding ‘will not impact on other projects’ as the cost is being spread over 10-15 years.

The latest schedule of works provided by BAM is for the hospital to be completed by October 29, with patients to be treated in 2025. Mr Varadkar insisted that the hospital, when it is open, i‘will be an incredible state-of-the-art hospital… comparable if not superior to many of the best children’s hospitals in Europe and around the world’.

Years of dispute ahead