Sinn Féin TD for Dublin South West Seán Crowe has expressed his anger and frustration with the lack of progress of the new National Children’s Hospital, both in terms of the huge cost overruns and the long delays that have been only longer and longer, saying that the hospital should have been finished two years ago and could cost three times more than the original cost.

Speaking after chairing a meeting of the Oireachtas Health Committee with the development board of the hospital yesterday, Crowe said:

“There are two simple questions that people ask about the National Children’s Hospital; when will it be finished and how much will it cost. The CEO of the board couldn’t give me answers yesterday in the Oireachtas Health Committee and frankly, I don’t think anyone could at this stage can.

“The whole project has been nothing short of shambolic from day one. This hospital was meant to be open and treating sick children two years ago.

“Only this week we heard that of the more than 3,000 plus rooms that the developer BAM was supposed to have finished, not one has been accepted by the board as being ok.

“And then there is the huge cost of the building. This hospital was budgeted at a cost of €980 million in 2017. Now, it is almost two and a half times that at a whopping €2.2 billion. And there is no doubt in my mind that the final figure is going to be even more.

“Irish tax payers are paying for the crazy costs of how public contracts are awarded, looked at, and hopefully completed in this state.

“My worry now is that the contract for the new National Maternity Hospital is currently out to tender and we can’t afford to repeat the same mistakes again or the maternity hospital will not be completed within the next decade and who knows at what cost.”