Failed plan for national children’s hospital cost €35m, says Dáil report

The failed attempt to locate the new national children’s hospital at the Mater hospital site in Dublin cost the State €35.5 million, a Dáil report has found.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) criticised the project and called for a review of the current plans to build the hospital at the St James's Hospital site.

In a report published yesterday, the committee said the initial project failed because the proposals were “totally at odds with the planning provisions of the city”.

It added: “When the initial proposal, which had taken five years to prepare, failed, there was no plan B.

“That failed project has cost the State €35.5 million and there is now a need to have a comprehensive review of the project so as to ensure that lessons are learned and mistakes are not repeated.”

In November 2012 the Government decided St James's Hospital should be the location for the new hospital. It followed the refusal in early 2012 by An Bord Pleanála of the application for it to be located at the Mater hospital in Dublin.

The committee said the project had been “blown completely off track once the planning application was rejected”.

The report recommended a review of the original project to examine whether there were lessons for the delivery of major infrastructure projects in the future.

It also suggested a review of the current plans to ensure the same mistakes were not repeated.

The PAC report also examined the Thornton Hall site in north Co Dublin, purchased for €50 million as a site for a new prison. However, no building has taken place.

The committee said the Department of Justice is still considering the need for a new prison and will use the location if necessary.

“The State has allocated the Department of Justice and Equality just over €50 million as part of the cost of delivering a solution to challenges facing the prison service in Dublin,” it said.

“A 1,400-cell prison costing approximately €525 million was to be developed on this site. However, that has not happened. The department now owns a fully serviced site in Thornton in north Co Dublin, and it’s unlikely that a return will ever materialise in respect of expenditure of €50 million.”