He said it was the “same old Sinn Féin — when you are against everything, you are for nothing”. Whatever steps the Government took were criticised by the Opposition, he said.
McDonald had earlier criticised government for the delay to the hospital, which may now not open to accept patients until 2026 after further delays in construction.
Ms McDonald replied by summing up the Government’s position as she saw it: “It’s the board’s fault. It’s the contractor’s fault. So of course it’s Sinn Féin’s fault. How could it not be.”
The Sinn Féin leader was supported by Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik, who accused the Government of constantly passing the buck.
Every time there was a scandal, the Health minister was “nowhere to be seen,” she said, saying his criticism of the escalating cost was “a letter to the RTÉ newsroom, copied to the Taoiseach.”
Mr Donohoe acknowledged however that the completion date of the hospital had been delayed 14 times in the last four years, including four times in the last twelve months.
Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald said: “We’re now looking at a completion date of 2026, and we can’t even be sure of that.” She called the affair a debacle, a farce and a fiasco.
And she cited a new report from KPMG today that calls into question whether the hospital will be ready to open even when it is built.
“There are fears about gaps in staffing and senior leadership teams, and a lack of clarity regarding the future operating model and resourcing of the hospital,” she said.
The project had descended into never-ending delay and ever-growing massive overspending and zero accountability, she said.
“Nobody in Government can say for certain when the hospital will open its doors or what the final bill for the taxpayer will be. This fiasco is rooted in government incompetence,” she said.
“It was Taoiseach Simon Harris who gave the go-ahead for the contract with BAM in 2017.
“Then in 2019, despite the big concerns and problems that had already emerged, he again gave the developer his seal of approval by signing the contract for phase two of construction.
“This is the source of all of the problems that have beset the building of the hospital — weak contracts that don’t protect the public purse, don’t hold the developer to delivery dates, and don’t allow for effective oversight of the project.
“Who signs a contract for anything, let alone a hospital, without any idea of what the final cost will be, or when the job will be finished?
“The answer to that question is Simon Harris.”
Social Democrat’s TD Róisín Shortall has said it would be “inappropriate” for the builders of the National Children’s Hospital to appear for the Oireachtas Health Committee.
The National Paediatric Development Board is to appear before the health committee tomorrow to answer questions on the delivery of the new children’s hospital in Dublin.
The board is expected to reveal the new proposed completion date put forward by BAM when they come before the committee.
The builder has come in for significant criticism, including from Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly, who accused BAM of “holding the state to ransom”.
However, Deputy Róisín Shortall, a member of the Oireachtas Health committee, said while the Health Minister and secretary general should come before them, she doesn’t believe BAM should.
“I actually think it would be inappropriate to bring in a private organisation like BAM. There is a chain of command there. From BAM to development board, [Children’s Health Ireland] and then the Minister and cabinet,” Deputy Shortall said.
“I would prefer to see the minister there and the secretary general. The secretary general is the accounting officer for expenditure and the minister should have oversight and be accountable for major infrastructural projects under his remit,” she added.
Ms Shortall said that on a political level, it is the minister and the secretary general that have responsibility.
“Now if we don’t get satisfaction there, we may have to consider [inviting BAM], but it would be very unusual, I think, to bring in a private company for them to account to the committee,” Ms Shortall said.
Labour’s spokesperson on health Duncan Smith said while he agreed with Minister Donnelly’s criticism of the BAM, he said there needs to be someone at CEO level in Children’s Health Ireland who is responsible for completion and operational readiness of the hospital.
According to a report by KPMG, it questioned the ability of CHI to move operations to the new hospital.
“It will be the most expensive hospital ever built on the planet and it will be ready at some point in the future,” Deputy Smith said.
“But for the health service not to be operationally ready that is an even bigger sin than the cost overruns and the long delays on the build itself.
“We need to have someone at CEO level that’s tasked within CHI for completion and operational readiness,” he added.
“The KPMG report would indicate that the current acting CEO’s resources are split, 10/20pc to the operational readiness and 80pc to 90pc to the running of the three existing hospitals. That cannot continue,” Deputy Smith said.
BAM has utterly rejected comments from Health Minister Stephen Donnelly to Simon Harris in which he claimed the builder was attempting to extract as much money from the State as possible for delivering the project.
BAM has also rejected all political criticisms and is pursuing claims for additional costs it says are justified under the terms of its contract with the State.
