Sinn Fein tells Government ‘the buck stops with you’ on hospital delay

The responsibility for ballooning costs and delays at the new National Children’s Hospital lies with Government, Sinn Fein has said.

Ministers say the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) has responsibility for engaging with lead contractor BAM on behalf of the Government.

However, Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said the project had “descended into complete farce” as she told Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe: “The buck stops with you, the Government.”

A fresh row over the hospital emerged after it was claimed that not one of the facility’s 5,500 rooms has yet to be finished to the expected standard.

The beleaguered development has been delayed on 14 occasions – four of which occurred within the last year.

The projected costs of the hospital have spiralled to 2.2 billion euro, up from an initial estimated price tag of 650 million euro in 2014.

The current completion date of the hospital, billed by the Government as “state-of-the-art”, is set at June 2025. Following completion, there will be an approximately six-month commissioning period before the site is ready to accept children as patients.

Ms McDonald said it could be 2026 before the hospital is operational, adding: “And we can’t even be sure of that.”

Outlining a range of concerns over potential gaps in staffing and resourcing, the Sinn Fein leader said there had been a “never-ending delay, ever-growing massive overspend and zero accountability”.

Speaking during Leaders’ Questions on Tuesday, Ms McDonald said: “This fiasco is routed in Government incompetence.”

She said the “go-ahead” for the hospital was signed off by the Taoiseach during his time as health minister.

“Who signs a contract for anything, let alone a hospital, without any idea of what the final cost will be or when the job will be finished? The answer to that question is Simon Harris.”

She added: “According to the board overseeing the project, not one of the hospital’s 5,000 rooms have been completed to standard set out in the contract.

“When it comes to the delays and the ballooning cost, the buck stops with you, with government.”

In response, Mr Donohoe said opposition parties raised the growing need to meet healthcare demands of sick children in the Dail on a weekly basis.

He said this is why the National Children’s Hospital is “so important”, adding: “That is why when it is open, it will make a massive difference to our ability to meet the healthcare needs of our youngest, particularly those with the most difficult and sensitive healthcare needs.”

The minister said the Government wants to see the hospital opened as soon as possible.

Mr Donohoe said it was the board of the hospital who are responsible for oversight and challenging the contractor on cost and delays.

“The board is acting on our behalf to take the steps that are needed to see it open, to turn it from a building to ensure that it becomes a hospital, giving care to those who need it the most.”

Mr Donohoe accused Sinn Fein of being “against everything” and “for nothing”.

“On one hand, you say you want to see the hospital open as soon as possible, but when we take the steps that are needed to lead to that hospital getting open, you stand up here in the floor of the door and you criticise that as well.”

Ms McDonald said Mr Donohoe’s comments showed a “grossly incompetent Government” that was “entirely unprepared to take responsibility”.

She added: “It’s the board’s fault, it’s the contractors. Of course it’s Sinn Fein’s fault, how could it not be?”

Mr Donohoe said the Government finds the current stage of the project unacceptable.

However, he said Sinn Fein would find any answer he provided to be “insufficient”.

Mr Donohoe further accused Ms McDonald “of doing the work of the contractor” rather than supporting the needs of Irish children.

While Labour leader Ivana Bacik acknowledged “anger” across the house, she said it was “not good enough” for Mr Donohoe to describe the delays as unacceptable.

“Your job as a government, the Health Minister’s job as health minister, is to take charge of this, to ensure that this hospital is built, rather than engaging in what seems to be a sort of unedifying psychodrama played out in letters to the press.”