Dublin South West Sinn Féin TD,  Seán Crowe, has called the published terms of reference for the independent review into the rising costs of the National Children’s Hospital outrageous, because they will stop short of determining the culpability of the overspend at an individual level.

Deputy Seán Crowe TD stated:

“The overrun at the National Children’s Hospital has been a catastrophic failure to date and people are rightly demanding answer into why there is such an enormous overspend. We need to find out why it happened, how it happened, and who is responsible.

“It is beyond comprehension that this Government have essentially instructed those who are conducting the independent review into the rising costs of the National Children’s Hospital to stop short of determining culpability at an individual level, via the terms of reference they have drafted for the investigation.

“Quite frankly this is bonkers. Nobody should be above scrutiny when it comes to the investigation into Children’s Hospital overspend, including all the former and current Ministers for Health during the lifetime of this project, as well as Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform.

“The hundreds of millions in overspend need to be accounted for and explained in detail.

“Those responsible have to be identified and there has to be consequences, if not, this review is just going through the motions and will end up an expensive whitewash.

“The terms of reference for the review into the overrun at the Children’s Hospital must be re-written, and crucially, those who are tasked with investigating this matter must have the freedom and independence to carry out their inquiries to ultimately determine any culpability, regardless of whose door that leads them to.”

ENDS