Minister for Health Simon Harris
When questioned by your paper about the massive cost increase for the new children’s hospital, Minister for Health Simon Harris wasted no time in taking the high moral ground and stating that he “will make no apology for extending our children’s care”.
With the decision today of 95 per cent of the members of the INMO to strike for a pay increase, is he therefore qualifying that statement by adding, “so long as I don’t have to pay staff”?
Regrettably, the Minister is all too quick to avoid any effort to provide justification to the taxpayers of this country for the out-of-control situation with the new hospital project.
Why does he provide a blank cheque to the hospital project while at the same time telling us that he cannot afford to pay the very people needed to operate such hospitals? He’ll stand over any cost – except nursing cost – really?
T Gerard Bennett,
Bunbrosna,
Co Westmeath.
Paying nurses and the INMO strike (The Irish Times letters page)
It’s the nurses, orderlies, attendants etc who do all of the grunt work, have to put up with the most hassle, and have to work the worst hours. The health service would be a mess without them.
The Dept of Health and the HSE have far, far too many staff that should have been let go years ago and would free up funds to pay for medical practitioners to be able to work.
I honestly don’t understand how a building, the National Children’s Hospital can cost €1,433,000,000. It’s a building with foundations, walls, windows, doors.
According to the Irish Times today “handbasins and theatre lights added €21 million”, ” sprinklers throughout the building, and changes made after the Grenfell fire, added €27 million to the cost” There’s a lot of talk about construction inflation, but if you look at the composite construction cost indices from the CSO, construction costs are declining with concrete down 18% in the past year.
The cost in 2016 was estimated at €790m. In September 2018, the health minister was saying the cost had risen to €1 billion. 10 weeks later, it’s ballooned to €1.433 billion with the caveat it could increase further.
And the government response is, it will make no apology for extending our children’s care.
At what cost?
At what cost? At the cost of children’s lives because this white elephant will be inaccessible to emergency traffic because of the stupid location. I hope whoever pocketed the brown envelopes is happy*.
*Miserable and uncomfortable for the rest of their long sad life.
@Daisy: How this wasn’t located on a greenfield site off the M1, I will never understand.
Yep all the developers and builders are friends of Leo and his fellow gravy train riders so they can drop any extraordinary figures they like and know they’ll pocket money for nothing. And the propaganda has started (see Irish Daily Mail) about Nurses wages, ooohhhh some get up to €51,000 per year. Worth every cent of it they are. Unlike Leo who gets €185,350 per year so that means he’ll rake in €11,679.60 while he’s on his 23 day Christmas break. They won’t put that on any INM papers or on RTE.
That’s it in a nutshell, none of their pals benefit by paying nurses a fair salary so it’s “fupp them”!
It was the most expensive childrens hospital in the world at 1 billion.
We are so lucky to be goverrned by such a great bunch of schoolteachers, publicans and journalists.
By the by, the lotto was sold off for 400 million to pay for this 400 million hospital.