No assurances that latest delay to new children's hospital will be the last, chief executive warns
The Dail's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has heard that the completion of the project has been pushed back from September to June 2026 – the fifteenth delay in five years.
Chief Executive of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB), David Gunning, said he could not at this time offer assurances that this will be the final delay.
Under questioning from Aontú's Peadar Tóibín during Leaders' Questions in the Dáil, Mr Harris said: 'Of course I am responsible. I am responsible for bringing the decision to cabinet. I am going to be responsible for a world class facility.'
He said 'nobody gets everything right in politics...as you sit over there and correct everybody's homework
'You rehearsed your lines that you must practice in front of the mirror in the morning. I am responsible, of course I am responsible. I am responsible for bringing the proposal to cabinet, I am responsible for recommending we proceed. And the easiest thing to do in politics if you don't want to get into any challenging situation is never make a decision.
'I am also going to be responsible for a world class facility, we are going to be responsible for transforming children's healthcare,' he said.
Deputy Tóibín accused him of blame-shifting: 'Simon 'it wasn't me' Harris is what we have in front of us at the moment.'
He added: 'Accountability and yourself are like oil and water.'
But the Fine Gael leader fought back. He said that 'nobody gets everything right in politics' and added: 'it's easy to sit over there and just correct everybody's homework. It much harder to come to work and roll up your sleeves and actually deliver for the people.'
Meanwhile, Mr Harris said that a new children's hospital planned for the North will cost more per square metre than the one due to open next year in Dublin.
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He was responding after Sinn Féin's Pearse Doherty accused him of 'declaring open season on the public finances' when he proceeded with National Children's Hospital as Minister for Health.
'Tánaiste, you personally signed the contract for the National Children's Hospital without even a finalised plan in place. It was pay as you go, and that is why BAM has the state over the barrel for the past eight years.'
He said it's no surprise that developers are 'going to squeeze as much profit out as they can' but that 'competent ministers are supposed to protect the public purse. So when you signed that contract you declared open season on the public finances,' he said.
But Minister Harris replied that the Sinn Féin First Minister in the North, Michelle O'Neill, has announced that £671million will be spent on a state-of-the-art children's hospital at the Belfast Royal Victoria Hospital.
'The children's hospital that you are delivering in Northern Ireland that your First Minister, that your Vice President welcomed, is more expensive per square metre than the Children's Hospital we are delivering here in this jurisdiction,' he said.
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