The Irish Examiner View: Why are we still playing catch-up?

It cannot be too long before students of management or public administration fill libraries with how-could-this-happen dissertations on the national children’s hospital. Decades in the making, this project, as yet to be credibly costed, symbolises the swamp where political point-scoring, self-serving professional interests, huge and growing public need, institutionalised indecision, evasion, and denial, as well as unassertive leadership — and recession — come together.

What should be a jewel in the crown has become a national embarrassment. The project also shows what can happen when momentum is lost, when focus shifts, and alternatives, long ago dismissed, resurface and distract.