Letters

The national children’s hospital

Costs and delays

Fri Jul 14 2023 - 01:30

A cara, – Should we rebrand this hospital “The National Teenage Hospital” as all the kids will be mini adults by the time this debacle is over? – Is mise,

DARA O LOINGSIGH,

Dublin 11.

Sir, – It is no surprise that the cost of the national children’s hospital is projected to end up with the highest cost per bed in the world. Just ask your local builder for the cost of a curved-shaped building on a restricted site, with all its related construction complexities compared with a regular-shaped building on a greenfield site.

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Clearly, costs and timescales were not primary considerations in the design and location of this much-needed facility. – Yours, etc,

BRENDAN O’BRIEN,

Castleknock,

Dublin 15.

Sir, – The building of a new children’s hospital on an adult hospital site was proposed in 1993. Your report says “New children’s hospital to open by early 2025 ‘at the latest’”, (Home News, July 12th).

Thirty-two years from conception to delivery. – Yours,etc.

REGGIE SPELMAN,

Rosslare Strand,

Co Wexford.

Sir, – Having witnessed the degree of rigour with which the PAC members chased down the truth behind the RTÉ payments fiasco, I look forward to their calling for a similar review of planning and procurement in the public sector in general. The national children’s hospital would be a good starting point.

I feel I shouldn’t hold my breath though, as exposing the culture at the heart of our inability to adequately cost and plan large-scale projects would shine lights in areas they themselves may not want given visibility.

We live in a country where taxpayers’ money is seen as a trough from which parts of the the private sector, with friends in right places, can feed and for which there is no accountability at the higher levels of the public sector. Until there is, I fear we are doomed to revisit this festival of overwrought hand wringing repeatedly. – Yours, etc,

BARRY WALSH,

Cork.

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