Children’s Hospital costs hit €2.24bn
Latest ¤500m a ‘settlement’
THE extra €500million given to the National Children’s Hospital project should be enough for a “final settlement” says Tanaiste Micheal Martin.
The decision by Cabinet yesterday brings the total budget for the beleaguered hospital to €2.24billion.
The cost of the facility being built on the site of St James’s Hospital has soared in recent years.
The previously approved budget was €1.73billion.
The initial estimate for the hospital was €650million in 2014. In 2017, the price had risen to €983million.
Cabinet yesterday approved enhanced capital and current budget sanctions for the New Children’s Hospital project, bringing the total approved budget to €2.24billion.
Included in this are the design, build and equipping costs (including Satellite Centres at Tallaght and Connolly) of €1.88billion and a separate €360million for the integration and transition of services to the NCH, including commissioning, ICT and the Electronic Health Record.
The hospital is now 90% complete, the Department of Health said.
Fianna Fail leader Martin said this the latest figure signed off by Cabinet was “within the ballpark” needed to complete the hospital.
He said: “The key decision [at Cabinet] was to ensure that the National Children’s Hospital had the wherewithal to fulfil their contracts and payments.
“We’re confident that this… the hospital authorities are confident that this is within the ballpark… That this will lead to a full and final settlement.”
Asked if the hospital would be “value for money”, Mr Martin said that there were other projects in the past that “did overrun” their budgets but that “in the fullness of time, people said that’s a great piece of infrastructure”.
Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe, meanwhile, said a number of outstanding bills relating to building the hospital are being “vigorously contested”.
During Leaders’ Questions, Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou Mcdonald called the hospital construction a “long-running debacle” and said the new price tag was an “unbelievable” “and “mind-boggling” cost. She said: “This debacle shows that the entire leadership of Government is asleep at the wheel.”