Cost of National Children’s Hospital shouldn’t stop future big plans
THE fear about the current crisis over the cost overruns for the National Children’s Hospital is that it will kill future infrastructure projects.
Governments will be fearful to touch future big projects - they won’t go near them with a barge pole.
Can you really see any Government pushing the green button on Dublin Metro in the current climate.
We need Dublin Metro. We need the National Children’s Hospital and the National Maternity Hospital.
Of course there has to be value for money, and projects need to be properly managed and costed and while we await the PWC report into just why costs spiralled so much, we must accept the reality that a project of such scale and complexity was always likely to be more expensive than budgeted for.
What concerns most is the ongoing debate that we are building the National Children’s Hospital in the wrong location. It is an argument that isn’t going away and this point was voiced almost as much as the spiralling costs in recent times. Why, is this matter not put to bed at this stage? Are we making a monumental mistake?
On a wider point, do we regret building the Dublin Port Tunnel, the motorway network and thereafter widening the M50 to three lanes, building and then extending the Luas or T2 in Dublin Airport.
Imagine the country and our economy without some or all of these major infrastructure projects.
Imagine driving to Dublin, via Castlebellingham, Dunleer, Drogheda, Balbriggan, Swords and finally the city itself. It doesn’t bear thinking about but many did that drive regularly, taking up to two hours to reach the city.
Will anyone regret building the National Children’s Hospital in years to come. I very much doubt it, unless it is a shabby build with corners cut to keep down costs or we learn in the years to come that we did indeed build a marvellous hospital in an entirely unsuitable location.
This hospital will be the future of pediatric healthcare for future generations. Let’s get it right and not be penny wise to be pound foolish.
Of course we shouldn’t ignore the cost overruns. We should learn the mistakes in this project and there should be accountability - something we are not good at in this country.
But we shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bath water.
We need to be brave, to have vision. We need to build large scale infrastructure right across the nation, but particularly inside the M50 where Dublin is creaking and and choking.