Government should be held to account over children’s hospital
THE notion that the debacle over the national children’s hospital is all the Minister’s fault and that he should be held personally responsible is nonsense, Independent Deputy Mick Wallace told the Dáil. ‘I do not buy that, but I do think the Government should be held to account,’ he said.
‘How that is to be done, I am not sure, but the Government is calling for elections in Venezuela,’ he said. ‘We are the ones who need an election. Perhaps we are the ones with the dysfunctional democracy, not Venezuela.’
Deputy Wallace said he did not expect the Government to understand everything about contracts for construction, but he would expect it to hire the right advisers and do the right thing when problems arise. ‘However, it is not doing so, at great cost to the people of Ireland,’ he said.
‘It is making a huge mistake in not re-tendering. It is a massive mistake. By the looks of it, the Government will carry on regardless. It is unfortunate that it has been given the opportunity to do so by the main party in opposition, which is really disappointing. While I might not agree with it, I understand the argument made about Brexit and that it cannot go there.’
‘Why do we not agree now to dissolve the Government at Easter and have an election afterwards?,’ he asked. ‘The manner in which the Government has failed on the children’s hospital project is demoralising.
‘It should not think it is good enough and it should re-think, although it might not look like the right thing to do. It is politically difficult to make that U-turn, but it is the right thing to do and it should do it.’