PAC blasts Department's lack of transparency on National Children’s Hospital

In July, immediately prior to the Dáil rising, and again in late August, the Department of Health told the PAC in writing that the issues of costs and timelines regarding the hospital are “commercially sensitive, and must remain confidential for an extended period”. Photo: Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ie

The Public Accounts Committee has delivered a scathing appraisal of the refusal of the Department of Health to confirm the final costs and timelines of the National Children’s Hospital.

During a lengthy debate on the matter at this afternoon’s meeting of the committee, its chair Brian Stanley decried that the PAC is “being strung along” on the matter, an opinion which appeared to draw consensus for the first time, with three Government TDs also expressing support for his position.

In July, immediately prior to the Dáil rising, and again in late August, the Department of Health told the PAC in writing that the issues of costs and timelines regarding the hospital are “commercially sensitive, and must remain confidential for an extended period”, leading Mr Stanley to question “do they even know what the costs are at this point?”

The body with responsible for the hospital build, the National Paediatric Health Development Board (NPHDB), previously appeared at PAC in early February and suggested that a report detailing updated costs for the €1.7 billion hospital would be available between two and four weeks following the meeting.

However, following the appointment of Robert Watt as Department secretary general, the State’s position changed to one in which the issue concerns a live contract and is therefore commercially sensitive.

“We’re in the ludicrous position where the taxpayer is funding the largest infrastructure project in the history of the State with no idea of the final cost or the timelines,” Mr Stanley said.

He said that following a visit to the construction site he had “more questions than I had before”.

“It might be an architectural showpiece, but in relation to its practicality, I would question some of this.” Regarding the failure to provide a costs update, Mr Stanley said “I’ve never seen anything like this in my lifetime”.

“This is two thirds of the way through and we’re hearing nothing. It’s an absolute mess. If the board and the Department don’t know at this time what the final costs will be then that is of huge concern." 

Vice chair of the committee Catherine Murphy said: “We were under the impression that we would see that report”. 

“We’ve had a change in attitude at the Department, and also a change in secretary general. We’ve had engagements and gone through in detail previously how some of these costs are escalating. I cannot for the life of me see why there’s been a change,” she said.

“The attitude appears to be that it’s not wise to be having any discussion at all on this. I do find it unacceptable that we can’t have a frank discussion on how to contain costs,” she said, adding that rolling updates from the Comptroller and Auditor General will be “a year in arrears”.

Government TDs Jennifer Carroll McNeill, Colm Burke, and Cormac Devlin also expressed concern at the lack of information forthcoming, with Ms McNeill saying “We certainly need more information than we have now”.

“I’ve seen the progress, but what struck me is the certain design changes being made,” Mr Devlin said. “Ultimately from our perspective we need to know the bottom line of how much the State is going to pay for this hospital. We need a final crystallisation of costs,” he said.

Mr Stanley suggested, to unanimous agreement, that the Committee should once again request an update on costs and timelines from the NPHDB. 

Seamus McCarthy, the C&AG, meanwhile informed the PAC that he had finished his audit of the NPHDB accounts for 2020 on July 6. “I don’t know when the audit will be completed, but I would expect that it won’t be too long.” 

The Committee agreed to invite both the Department and the NPHDB back before it when that audit is completed.