State of the art Children’s Hospital? For that money it would be out of this world
SIR,
There is a now predicted end cost of (minimally) €2 billion for the “state-oftheChildren’s Hospital. Quite frankly, for two billion Euro it better well be state -of-the-art because it’s an out-of-this-world expense.
More importantly, a few years ago, when originally proposed, the budget was then a jaw-dropping €650 million.
But it was going to be “state of the art”, don’t forget.
Now these ghastly cost overruns have resulted in the voluntary resignation of only one board member, Tom Costello.
After his pithy resignation statement citing “integrity”, Mr Costello was soundly thanked by our Minister of Health, Simon Harris, for his efforts. Yes, those are the very same efforts that have resulted in over a billion Euro in cost over runs. Thank him for what, exactly?
I wonder if we have lost our sense of right and wrong or are we losing our minds.
Leo Varadkar, from whom we now regularly expect stupid statements, said that all big capital projects have cost overruns. Pay attention, Leo – it’s more than a billion Euro.
PwC issued a report on the overruns without assigning any culpability for them – a report, by the way, that our Government paid a whopping €450,000 for. Not exactly money well spent.
Again, are we losing our minds or our sense of right and wrong?
It seems like nobody knew what was going on even though Simon Harris was made aware of the problems in August 2018.
What about the Project Director, John Pollock? Why wasn’t he on top of this situation? I repeat the job title here: project director! Where’s the money Mr Pollock? Or maybe someone should ask the Chief Executive of the Children’s Hospital Group, Eilish Hardiman, how the cost overruns are speeding towards €2 billion. Have you been sleeping on the job, Ms Hardiman? If so, give back your salary because the taxpayers are getting soaked because you were snoozing!
When and if it is ever completed, it will be an empty building. What about the cost of fitting it out – and don’t forget it must be “state-of-the-art” equipment. And staffing the hospital, well there’s another problem altogether.
What happened here and what is continuing to happen is wrong. It is morally reprehensible and anyone with two connecting synapses in their soul knows it is wrong.
If they don’t, then perhaps we are losing our minds,
Sincerely,
Tom Cahill,
Ballinskelligs