We will learn nothing from hospital farce
THE news that the National Children’s Hospital will now, most likely, cost at least €2bn and become the most expensive ever built, anywhere in the world, has shocked the country, but should we be surprised? After all, the entire process of commissioning and delivery has been mired in controversy.
First, the Mater Hospital was announced as the co-location site for the children’s hospital, before the decision was made six years later that St James’s was more suitable. There was widespread dissatisfaction, especially from those who would be attending from beyond Dublin, when a greenfield site near the M50, with ample parking, would have made more sense.
There were rows over the composition of the hospital board; a minor skirmish when Health Minister Simon Harris announced it would not carry the name of a saint; and even about the original cost of €650m. How we wish now we were arguing over what seems a modest sum.
PwC has been commissioned to report on the budget overruns, at a cost of €450,000. Incredibly, the brief says culpability will not be established at an individual level. Governments always say they’re not in the blame game, but that is a neat hiding place, because the public seek accountability, not blame.
What it really means is this – nobody will be held responsible. This is the recurring motif of public life in Ireland, one we have seen most recently in the CervicalCheck scandal and just last week in the gagging clause proposed by the State in order for Joanne Hayes, the woman at the centre of the Kerry babies fiasco, to claim the compensation she rightfully is due. Every such decision made by the State has one aim – to protect the State and its institutions.
And here is what will happen. There will be an inquiry. The inquiry will end in recommendations. The Government will accept the recommendations and say it will ensure it never happens again. The controversy will die down, the news cycle will move on, and it will be business as usual for a while. And then it will happen again. Why? Because as long as there are no personal consequences for individuals who make bad decisions on our behalf, there is no need to fully assess the merits of those decisions. Ministers will continue to claim, as Mr Harris has, that they were not told of problems in time to act.
Instead, there will be PR stunts to make it seem as if the situation is being taken seriously. We saw one yesterday with the resignation of Tom Costello, chairman of the hospital’s development board, just as we saw the resignation of CervicalCheck boss Gráinne Flannelly and the early retirement of HSE boss Tony O’Brien. What good did either of those actions do for the women affected?
In Ireland, we operate on the firingsquad principle. There’s always a dummy bullet in one of the barrels so everyone can say it wasn’t him or her that fired the fatal shot. In the same way, the Children’s Hospital board will point to the HSE, the HSE will point to the Department of Health, and no one will be accountable, never mind blamed.
That is how we do things here.