Irish Examiner view: €2bn children's hospital project is all but out of control

In recent days, Irish Examiner  Political Editor Elaine Loughlin has drawn readers’ attention to several significant news stories which have been hiding in plain sight because of the huge focus on the RTÉ payments scandal.

One of those news stories butted its way back into the public consciousness yesterday, when there were stunning revelations at the Oireachtas health committee meeting about the new national children’s hospital.

National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) CEO David Gunning accused BAM, the company contracted to construct the new hospital, of submitting “grossly inflated claims”, adding that no firm date can be given on when the hospital will open, and stating that just 27 rooms have been “deemed complete” out of 3,000 based on BAM’s commitments.

Wrangling and complications are to be expected on major projects. The wider the scope of that project, the greater the risk of complication and overrun.

However, the overrun here appears to be spiralling out of control already. The NPHDB has already submitted a request to the Government for more capital funding — beyond the €1.433bn which was estimated as necessary to meet the expected total cost of the hospital, though that figure already seems to be obsolete — and Mr Gunning said yesterday that the final cost of the hospital will “absolutely” go beyond that €1.433bn figure. There is no doubt but the final bill will go beyond €2bn, while some politicians have expressed fears that the real cost may not be known for years.

To complicate matters further, there is no clarity on when the hospital will actually open for patients. The Taoiseach himself admitted earlier this week that the Government had “substantially underestimated” the costs involved when building commenced, but he was also unable to give a firm date for the facility opening to patients.

He suggested that date might come in late 2024 or early 2025, the first time the latter year has figured as a possible opening date.

This appalling story of bloated construction costs and vague completion dates has national implications — it is a national children’s hospital, after all.

No matter how distracting the RTÉ story is, firmer control of this project is badly needed.

A question of character 

The minister for justice is proposing significant changes in the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences and Human Trafficking) Bill 2023, which aims to strengthen the law around protection for victims of human trafficking.

These amendments also involve changes to the practice of providing a character reference for someone convicted of a sexual offence such as rape.

Under the new provisions, if someone gives such a character reference at a sentencing hearing, then the reference must be given on oath or via affidavit — currently, a witness called to court to provide character evidence does so under oath, but written testimonials are not sworn.

Also under the bill, the person providing the reference must swear to the veracity of their statement and can be called before the court for cross-examination if necessary. This is a significant change to an often controversial practice. The submission of character references has been contentious for many years, and has often been criticised by activists in this area.

In a case in Kerry two years ago, for instance, Vera O’Leary, the manager of the Kerry Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre, said character references for those convicted of sexual violence cause additional trauma to their victims. In that particular instance, Ms O’Leary was referring to a case in which testimonials were submitted by a senior GAA official, a retired Garda sergeant, and a publican at the sentencing hearing of a 26-year-old man convicted of rape.

It remains to be seen what impact this provision will have, though it seems doubtful that the possibility of being cross-examined about one’s character reference for a convicted sex offender would encourage more people to submit such testimonials.

The necessity of such references in the first place is questionable, as they suggest a natural rejoinder: Surely a court conviction for rape or a similar offence is more indicative of character than any written reference could ever be.

Milan Kundera

Milan Kundera, the Czech novelist, died this week at the age of 94.

Kundera went through the archetypal experience of the dissident writer in a Communist regime — a member of the party in his youth, he turned against the rulers of what was then Czechoslovakia to become a leading light in the Prague Spring of 1968. Seven years after that uprising, he left Czechoslovakia for France permanently.

Kundera published less as he got older but in the 1980s he was a major global figure, and his work duly got the Hollywood treatment. For some readers, the film version of one of his novels, The Unbearable Lightness of Being (featuring a young Daniel Day-Lewis) may ring a faint bell, though the writer himself was dissatisfied with the film.

Czech-born author Milan Kundera has died at the age of 94. Picture: Jovan Dezort/CTK/AP

For those who remember the ’80s, Kundera’s books, however, will always have another association. They figured as necessary props for the pretentious student types of that decade. Those for whom a copy of The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, or some other gloomy romance set in eastern Europe, was as necessary an accoutrement as a pair of shoes or a floppy haircut. Rest in peace.