Hamstrung Government is a propped up pinata waiting to pop
THE word omni-shambles has been on my mind all week and it had nothing to do with the Tories and British Labour parties. The shambles is right here, right now, in our Government: one strung together with the finest of threads. Threads which would barely hold together a knitted fig leaf, never mind a progressive, ambitious government.
Health Minister Simon Harris should be long gone over his mishandling of the National Children’s Hospital. But for a concatenation of missteps in Britain prompting Brexit nightmare scenario after nightmare scenario, he would be, but the country can’t risk any more chaos ahead of a very likely no deal Brexit.
The beleaguered TD survived a motion of no confidence by the thinnest of margins (five votes). The party which brought the motion have an able debater at their helm, but it’s a case of all sound and fury signifying nothing. Like Chicken Little their constant assertion that the sky is falling in under the current Government is not bolstered by credible policies. Such is the chaotic political landscape that their voluble cries in the Dáil has been doing the party good in polls. Fianna Fáil have been proven to be a blushing bridesmaid once again. They abstained under the confidence and supply arrangement – an umbrella term used by their ministers to protect themselves any time the ground shakes in this shakiest of political firmaments. Leo Varadkar leapt to Mr Harris’s defence in the Dáil, saying Sinn Féin deputies are ‘ trigger happy’ with their motions of no confidence. He argued that if they had any experience in government they would not be so quick to judge.
The problem I have with the Fine Gael Government is they seem to live in a rarefied world in which the past is an inconvenience inflicted upon them by Fianna Fáil, the present is a dream in which they are the dreamers and the future is an extension of that dream. Complacency is evident in how they totally messed up the National Children’s Hospital contract. As one political sleuth said, the Department of Finance would pursue someone for a cent and yet they had their eye off the ball when it came to hundreds of millions being added to a contract for a hospital.
Trotting out the old excuse that the health ministry is one of the tough jobs in government and one of the most important jobs in the country, Mr Varadkar tried to defend the indefensible.
‘I know major errors were made in calculating the true cost [of the hospital]. As head of government I accept responsibly for that,’ the Taoiseach said. Meanwhile Mr Harris has promised to get to the bottom of the cost increases. More consultancy costs, but then some things never change.
The facts speak for themselves: The cost escalation of the National Children’s Hospital is looking like a €450m overrun. The first phase of the project had a fixed price, but the second, for the completion of the hospital above ground, had only a rough design, with the final cost to be negotiated between the contractor and other parties as work began on the first phase.
The current estimate is for the hospital – which anyone with a sick child will know is badly needed – to cost €1.7bn.
I’ve met Simon Harris and he comes across as a sincere, capable minister. His election theme tune was the song Happy. Surely that has changed now to Always Look on the Bright Side of Life or I’ve Fell On Black Days even.