The building of the National Children's Hospital has gone completely out of control. That's the view of Cavan Monaghan Sinn Fein TD, Deputy Matt Carthy who says the matter has turned into a "fiasco".
Speaking on this morning's Joe Finnegan Show, Deputy Carthy said the contract that was initially put in place has caused the problem and the taxpayer is being left to pick up the pieces. He says the Minister for Health has "stuck his head in the sand" and Stephen Donnelly now needs to show some leadership because of the seriousness of the matter.
Deputy Carthy added that the hospital initially had a budget of €600m and was due to be completed by 2024, and now it's going to cost in excess of €2bn to complete. "The consideration for the taxpayer simply hasn't been strong enough and neither has the protection or accountability mechanisms.
"Now we have a situation where by the taxpayer in the coming days will be burdened with an additional sum of money going into hundreds of millions of euro. This is way above the existing budget and we don't know when this is going to end. This has happened because of the type of contracts there were put in place and the lack of oversight," he said.
