The mounting cost of Covid-19
Pandemic emergency expected to last for years Children’s hospital cost could ‘rise by up to 40pc’ Testing and tracing ‘will cost hundreds of millions’
THE massive costs of the coronavirus crisis are mounting with feared extra spending on the national children’s hospital (NCH) and plans for Covid-19 testing over the next year predicted to run into hundreds of millions of euro.
The Dáil probe into the State’s response to the emergency heard the cost of the NCH – which had spiralled before the pandemic and was due to hit €1.7bn – could rise by as much as 40pc, based on Construction Industry Federation estimates on the impact of new protocols for building sites, bringing the final bill to €2.4bn.
Another 16 people died from the virus yesterday, as Department of Health secretary general Jim Breslin said he expected the Covid19 emergency to last for years.
HSE chief Paul Reid earlier said plans for testing and contact tracing were set to cost “several hundreds of millions of euro”. And the impact of the emergency on employment is growing, with DAA, which runs Dublin and Cork airports, warning of hundreds of job losses.
Dalton Philips, the chief executive of the semi-State company last night told staff of stark decisions the firm needs to rapidly make in the face of a collapse in air traffic.
The measures will involve job losses and a review of a slate of major projects at Dublin Airport – designed to future-proof its capacity after years of strong passenger growth – is also necessary.
In the Dáil, TDs got the opportunity to publicly grill Ireland’s top health officials for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
Mr Reid said that coronavirus testing and contact tracing costs so far have been “roughly €35m between testing and tracing”.
TDs were told the health service now has the capacity to carry out 100,000 tests per week.
Mr Reid predicted the costs into the future will be hundreds of millions more “based on the volume we’ll be testing in the coming year”.
He said the HSE is “still in dialogue” with the Department of Public Expenditure on the matter.
The children’s hospital project was raised at a later session attended by CIF director general Tom Parlon.
He told the committee that the new regulations for building sites could increase costs by 40pc for large and complex projects.
It came after he was asked by Labour TD Duncan Smith about the impact of the NCH development.
Mr Parlon did not directly reference the NCH but told the committee: “Industry people have said that to me that for the most complex ones it could be in the range of 40pc.”
Mr Smith demanded that the Government publish revised estimates on the final costs of the development.
Responding later to criticism of the expected increase in costs from Fine Gael TD Fergus O’Dowd, Mr Parlon said that to finish off complex sites like the NCH or data centres “is going to be a major challenge”.
A two-year programme of work on a site could end up being a four or five-year programme, he said.
He said he hoped some of the protocols restricting the number of workers on a site can be “reduced and relaxed over time” as progress is made with the virus.
Earlier, he told TDs that the cost of building a house could rise by as much as €15,000 and as much as €20,000 for an apartment. He said, based on conversations with colleagues in Europe, the extra cost would be between 5pc and 10pc across the sector in an answer to questions from Fianna Fáil’s John McGuinness.
The Carlow-Kilkenny TD later warned of a “legal quagmire” over the possibility that the funds backing major building developments could collapse and issues over insurance could lead to court cases.
Mr McGuinness called for the committee to recommend the setting up of a government-led forum to deal with such issues and offset potential costs to the taxpayer.
Dr Sharon McGuinness, the Health and Safety Authority
chief executive, told the committee the authority had 67 field inspectors to ensure compliance with the new workplace protocol and they have already been out enforcing compliance with it.
She said there have been more than 80 unannounced inspections since Monday.
She said the authority would need additional resources to oversee compliance with the protocol and is “confident” they will be provided.