In 2019, then-Fianna Fáil Health spokesman Stephen Donnelly hit out at Fine Gael over the spiralling cost of the National Children’s Hospital, dubbing the situation at the time “a scandal.”
The quote, which was shared on social media last week, highlighted Donnelly’s previous feelings on the beleaguered project.
Speaking in the Dáil on March 12th 2019, Donnelly said that it was “not true” that inflation was causing the rise in cost.
“We were told originally that the massive overrun was due to inflation, but then we got documents to show this was not true,” he said, adding that the Fine Gael government had attempted to “shift blame” to contractors.
“An attempt was made in the Chamber to shift the blame to unnamed contractors for lowballing but that strategy very quickly failed also,” he said.
“…We were told that €650 million was a reasonable price to pay. We are told today that €1.7 billion is a reasonable price to pay for the same hospital. We were told by the Minister for Health that the only scandal regarding this would have been a decision to cancel the project.
“No – a €1 billion additional spend on the same hospital is a scandal.”
He also slammed Taoiseach Leo Varadkar at the time for refusing to take responsibility for the problem.
“In this entire debacle the only blame the Taoiseach is willing to accept for his Government is that perhaps it should have told us all about it a little bit quicker,” he said.
“That is it. That is all it is willing to accept. Every expert I have spoken to about this has said that major construction projects routinely run over and are routinely brought back into budget. That is how the world works; it is just not how the National Children’s Hospital works.”
He added: “…We have now reached a point, it is fair to say, that when it comes to the children’s hospital, nobody believes a single word the Government says.”
As of July 2023, the project is set to rise to as much as €2 billion amid ongoing delays, with Donnelly last year blaming inflation for the “significant” increase.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has said high inflation will add 'significantly' to the build cost of the National Children's Hospital.
He added that he believes the process around costs was 'not set up in the right way' | Read more: https://t.co/lSkK6SV21B pic.twitter.com/u0BMl483L6
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) June 16, 2022
Earlier this month, Donnelly slammed the contractor working on the project for the delays, saying they “need to step up.”
National Children’s Hospital contractor 'needs to step up', says Health Minister Stephen Donnelly https://t.co/gDthpkYfL3
— TheJournal.ie (@thejournal_ie) July 4, 2023
“My view on this is very clear, he told reporters.
“The contractor has an obligation to deliver according to its contract. There were some inevitable delays to be fair during Covid, but there have been delays to this project which I don’t believe are acceptable or certainly not acceptable to me.”
He added: “I believe greater efforts are required from the contractor. I believe that there is more that can be done in terms of deploying resources to this site to accelerate the speed at which this is being delivered.
“I’m not satisfied at the speed with which it’s being delivered. And so we’re working through various issues in terms of timelines, and ensuring the best possible value for money. The contractor has made claims for a very, very significant amount of money.”
Gript reached out to the Minister’s personal office for comment on the matter, to ask whether he regretted his previous quotes, and if he believed the current situation was also a scandal. The Department of Health replied, in an answer which can be found in full below.
- Expansion of Massachusetts General Hospital @ $2 billion.
- Cooper University Health, New Jersey expansion @ $2 billion.
- University of California, Davis Medical Centre @ $3.8 billion.
Elsewhere hospital construction projects internationally include:
- Bucharest’s Metropolitan Hospital @ €980million.
- Midland Metropolitan Hospital, England @ equivalent of€1.156 billion.
- Royal Adelaide Hospital, @ AUS$2.44 billion.
- Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal @ equivalent of €1.657 billion.
- Again, the relative comparator cost for the NCH would be the €910m construction contract cost.