Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister and his colleagues. I also welcome his ongoing commitment to the children's hospital. It is the biggest single project of that nature ever undertaken in this State. It is not, by a long shot, the most expensive hospital in the world, despite comments from some people. It is ten times bigger than any similar project ever undertaken in this State. It is very important to the fundamentals of children's healthcare in this country and to bring it from where it was into the 21st century in a meaningful way. I compliment all those involved in the creation of the concept in the first instance and in the development works that have taken place to date. It is almost 94% complete. Every day, people in these Houses comment unwisely on the hospital and compare it with the bike shed in Leinster House, suggesting that it is a waste of money. It is not. That has to be firmly rejected at every level. As politicians, we have to take responsibility for all of our actions in this House. Regarding attempts the undermine the concept on the basis that it was built in the wrong place, the response must be "It has been built, so what about it?" It is already there. It will be a major contribution to children's healthcare in this country. It has been sought for many years. While every day we hear people say that something or other is wrong with it, that it should not have been here and that it should have been there, I have been in and out to that particular site numerous times in a private capacity over the past year or two and I am amazed. To have a working hospital continue to work as it has while at the same time replacing a large portion of the site with a brand new hospital is something extraordinary.

The other matter I will comment on is the ongoing row, or what has blazed up into a row, between BAM and the project team. At these meetings of the committee, I have advocated for representatives of BAM to come before us. That would be helpful. Far too often, we rely on third-party information, although it is given in good faith.

We need to talk to the firm itself, which may be asked to stand over some of the things. We know that many of the issues have already gone to arbitration and have been successfully resolved. What appeared to be large issues that could bring the whole scheme to a halt when announced first were not so large, as we heard at the last meeting of this committee in respect of the famous grilles that were supposed to hold up the development of the hospital for years and double the cost. We need to move away from these exaggerated claims on all sides in this debate, from the point of view of the Government and Opposition. If we persist with sabotaging our own projects, we will not need any assistance from anywhere else.

The Minister's comments this morning and the commitments made so far are to be hugely welcomed. The next phase, as someone said in the last couple of days, involves the hospital being fitted out but all hospitals have to be fitted out. There has not been one yet that did not need to be fitted out. I remember when Beaumont and Tallaght hospitals were being fitted out that somebody predicted a crisis and said there would be no money. That is the job of the Minister. There are Ministers charged with responsibility for providing the money and it is there, as required. Notwithstanding all of that, it is important to supervise the construction work and all associated with it. If we look, for example, at the famous grilles that were supposed to take years to resolve, the issue was resolved in a few days and for only a few euro in the context of the totality of the project.

We have a funny attitude in this country. Of course, we have been overtaken by electionitis now. It is a severe condition that cannot be treated, not even in the children's hospital. It is there and at almost every juncture we find reasons why we should go to the country. That is not the way things work. The Government has a job to do and that job has to be done. The Department of Health has a job to do and it has to be done. Its job is the delivery in full and in accordance with the specifications. In relation to possible overruns, there are almost 6,000 rooms in the children's hospital. We have all heard people say that they could build a whole plethora of houses for this kind of money. If anybody contracted to build 6,000 houses in the environment in which we have lived in this country over the past five years, he or she would soon find out that there is a slight increase in the costs, for want of a better description.

For a change, we should be supportive of the project. We should encourage the project towards its final fitting out and the implementation of the start-up works as soon as possible. The project is 95% complete at this stage. There are suggestions from certain quarters that we should go to court and have a pow-wow there but that does not come without a price tag as well, incidentally. We should use the procedures that are there already to negotiate and resolve the outstanding issues. If the contractors want an audience at this committee, I would certainly support that. Indeed, I have supported that idea from the beginning. They, like everybody else, would obviously have to hear our questions and I have no doubt they would be able to give answers but all within reason and all in recognition of what is a flagship project.

As I said, this is the biggest project ever undertaken in this State. It is fundamental to paediatric medicine. It is as simple as that and we cannot falter or hesitate. Some have decided to compare the costs with the bike shed, the security hut or whatever the case may be, and these projects are rightly subject to criticism. There is a lot more to regard there than there is in the children's hospital. The children's hospital is a positive development in this country. I assure the Minister that I support it fully. The Opposition needs to do the same thing. It is in everybody's interest.

The last point I want to make is that the rest of the project should be speeded up as much as possible. The emphasis has to be on delivery. Of course there will be snags in a project of this size. In terms of the resolution of any snags that may arise, the procedures already in place to deal with these situations must be put into operation. We must recognise that the project needs support to finish the last 5%. If we have got that far, I cannot understand why, even with electionitis, which cannot be treated in that hospital or anywhere else for that matter, we cannot continue with our proposals satisfactorily and deliver to the Irish people something that will last and be of benefit to them for centuries, as we know from experience.