THE NATIONAL CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL: 30 YEARS AND €1.5BILLION IN COST OVERRUNS

1993: College of Physicians recommends the building of new National Children’s Hospital. FEBRUARY, 2006: Children’s Health First McKinsey report recommends a single hospital, on the site of the Mater in Dublin. FEBRUARY, 2012: An Bord Pleanála refuses permission for Mater site.

JUNE, 2012: Dolphin Report recommends current site at St James’s Hospital NOVEMBER, 2012: Government announces new hospital will cost €500m, €400m to come from Exchequer, with the balance to come from the sale of the National Lottery. 2016: Health Minister Leo Varadkar confirms the cost of NCH has risen to €650m. Varadkar insists hospital will open in 2020 ‘unless an asteroid hits the planet’.

APRIL, 2017: Health Minister Simon Harris confirms final cost will rise to €983m. AUGUST, 2018: Simon Harris is told costs have risen even further, this time to €1.183bn NOVEMBER, 2018: Harris and Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe are informed costs now stand at estimated €1.433bn.

DECEMBER, 2018: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar confirms €1.433bn figure.

JANUARY, 2019: Hospital costs soar to €1.7bn. Labour leader Alan Kelly comments: ‘I don’t think it will come in under €2bn.’

JULY, 2021: Department of Health confirms the hospital will be delayed by more than 14 months, adding again to the final bill. The department says it does not have a working estimate for the final cost of the project, but the bill is widely expected to surpass €2bn.