{"id":7380,"date":"2024-09-22T14:53:34","date_gmt":"2024-09-22T13:53:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/?p=7380"},"modified":"2024-09-22T14:53:34","modified_gmt":"2024-09-22T13:53:34","slug":"government-must-accept-blame-for-childrens-hospital-omnishambles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/government-must-accept-blame-for-childrens-hospital-omnishambles\/","title":{"rendered":"Government must accept blame for Children&#8217;s Hospital omnishambles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>The fingerprints of three health ministers, and two Taoisigh, are all over this disaster \u2013 Leo Varadkar, Simon Harris and Stephen Donnelly<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The government is attempting to foist all blame for the ongoing fiasco with the National Children\u2019s Hospital on developer BAM in an effort to evade responsibility for successive government\u2019s mishandling of this critical capital project, according to Social Democrats health spokesperson R\u00f3is\u00edn Shortall.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAccording to the Sunday Independent, none of the 3,000 rooms finished so far in the National Children\u2019s Hospital are complete to a satisfactory standard.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Health Minister has also made serious allegations of gouging against BAM, with claims that BAM quoted \u20ac25 million for work that was ultimately completed by a contractor for \u20ac200,000.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAllegations of gouging, and trying to \u201cextract as much money from the taxpayer as possible\u201d, have been denied by BAM, so the Minister must now stand them up and take action against the developer if they are true.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe government\u2019s ongoing war with BAM conveniently lays the entire blame for this utter fiasco at the feet of a developer \u2013 and insulates successive governments from any blame for this omnishambles.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact is, it is the job of government to oversee and deliver critical capital projects \u2013 and this government, and previous governments, have abysmally failed in that duty.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis project is now on track to be the most expensive children\u2019s hospital in the world, costing many multiples of what was initially budgeted. Incredibly, we still have no idea what the final cost will be and even when it is likely to open.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018The fingerprints of three health ministers, and two Taoisigh, are all over this disaster \u2013 Leo Varadkar, Simon Harris and Stephen Donnelly. Not one of them has accepted even a shred of responsibility for overseeing this debacle.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery deadline and every budget for this project has been blown through. Political commitments, given by successive health ministers about when it would open, have proven to be untrue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe question must be asked, is anyone in control of this project? If BAM is engaged in gouging they must be held to account. But, so too must the government that oversaw a project that has descended into such a national embarrassment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe children of this country, who are being treated in antiquated and unsuitable hospitals, deserve better from this government. They need to know, when is this hospital going to open \u2013 and why is the health minister unable to answer that simple question?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>22 September, 2024<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The fingerprints of three health ministers, and two Taoisigh, are all over this disaster \u2013 Leo Varadkar, Simon Harris and Stephen Donnelly The government is attempting to foist all blame for the ongoing fiasco with the National Children\u2019s Hospital on developer BAM in an effort to evade responsibility for successive government\u2019s mishandling of this critical [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6759,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,7,264],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-press-release","category-roisin-shortall"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - 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