Failed co-location hospital project spent €1.5m on consultants
A formal Dáil response by Health Minister James Reilly to a parliamentary question by Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald confirmed the expense was accrued during lengthy discussions on co-location the issue.
Dr Reilly said the total cost for professional advice on the project is €1.46m.
In addition, the developers of the four most advanced hospital projects involved in the plan have paid each €350,000 to the state in non-refundable deposits.
The initiative, which intended to place private hospitals on the grounds of public facilities and was revealed by former health minister Mary Harney in 2005, was abandoned last April.
While no official reason was given, other than a statement confirming the initial contracts to build the sites had not been extended, it is widely believed that the economic crisis was a contributory factor in the project being abandoned.
While the plan was still considered viable, health service management claimed it would help free up space for public patients and prove vital to health service reform.
However, due to funding issues, the health service decided not to grant any further extensions to the project agreements for the four most advanced co-located unit plans.
These were to be based at Beaumont and St James’s hospitals in Dublin, Cork University Hospital (CUH) in Cork city and the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Dooradoyle, Co Limerick.
One of the main private companies at the centre of the co-location project was the Beacon Medical Group, which was to build a multi-million euro facility at CUH.
The nationwide initiative was a central factor in the 2007 general election campaign, with its detractors seeing it as further evidence of the two-tier nature of Ireland’s health system.
This view was denied by the former government, which said it was vital to system-wide reform.
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