Mattie McGrath criticises National Maternity Hospital cost overruns
Mattie McGrath spoke on 23 June 2021 about the National Maternity Hospital project, condemning rising costs and the government's handling and defending St. Vincent's Health Group and the religious sisters. He warned that the project's budget escalation — now quoted at $800 million including fit-out and transfer costs — will leave taxpayers to pick up the bill.
Costs escalation
McGrath detailed the cost history he gave in the Dáil: an original 2018 estimate of $150 million, a 2017-18 rise to about $350 million, and a 2021 building infrastructure price of $500 million announced by the Minister for Health. He said further commissioning and fit-out costs of $350 million bring the total to $800 million.
Project delays and patient impact
He criticised the length of the delay, noting the project was first announced in 2013 and remains at a preliminary stage on the St. Vincent's campus in South Dublin. He said more than 8,000 women continue to give birth each year in what he described as wholly ill-suited, crowded Victorian-era conditions at Holles Street.
St. Vincent's ownership dispute
McGrath reported that St. Vincent's Health Group has stated it must retain ownership of the Park campus site for delivery of integrated patient care and said the group is willing to meet the government to discuss relocation from Holles Street. He urged ministers to meet representatives rather than publicly criticise them.
Political context and criticism of treatment of religious orders
He accused government parties of playing politics, linking the saga to a Dublin Bay South by-election, and said religious sisters have been unfairly attacked and harangued. He acknowledged historical abuses should be addressed and survivors compensated, but protested against what he called broad condemnation of the good work of many religious orders.
Calls for negotiation and external oversight
McGrath called for talks with the hospital group, suggested bringing in outside authorities to oversee major projects, and demanded accountability for the project's mismanagement. He warned taxpayers will be left to carry the cost and urged a solution that secures a new facility without denigrating those who ran hospitals and schools for generations.
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The National Majority Hospital project was first announced in 2013, that is now eight years ago. Like the National Children's Hospital, the real scandal with the development is described in costs. 2018, the original cost was in the region of $150 million. 2017-18, the costs had risen by over 100% to an estimated $350 million. 2021, last Friday in fact, we were told by the Minister for Health that the building infrastructure cost has been priced at $500 million. Further commissioning costs, including fit-out and transferring an entire hospital to a new site, will be a further $350 million. That is $800 million, four times the original rest of it. Given the utter lack of competence by the government to manage major projects, and the officials in Ireland as well, we have to look at the Children's Hospital, we have to look at this, look at broadband, look at everything else. The ineptitude is frightening. We are going to have to get some foreign authorities in here, I mean outside people that will oversee this and bring this to book. It is disgusting, just madness. Any business wouldn't survive a week if they were behaving like that. As I said, this is the real issue surrounding the National Maternity Hospital, I believe. Taxpayers will once again be left to carry the can, always. Taxpayers are sick, so sorry, and tired of this. How eight years on a building works at the site of St. Vincent's campus in South Dublin is still at preliminary stage. And you can blame the sisters all you like, there's nothing got to do with them. Meanwhile, each year, more than 8,000 women continue to give birth in wholly ill-suited, crowded conditions in the Victorian era building at Hollis Street. Government politicians rehearse the same arguments that have failed delivery of the project from the beginning. Very same mantra. Under a plan that is once a statement about the state's ambitions for the modern healthcare and for a messy compromise rooted in the century of official neglect in the same area, the government will build an 800 million hospital on, as I said, this site, if they ever get to build it. And this is where the problem is. So I am very concerned, you know, that this is, on Tuesday, 22nd of June, the St. Vincent's Hospital group, something yesterday, has said that they must retain ownership of the site, that the new National Maternity Hospital will be built on. This means that the hospital group is happy to proceed with the arrangements with the religious assistance of charity. I mean, as I heard you last Sunday, I think, and really saying you're going to meet him. I heard you this morning and morning, I'm going to meet him. When are you going to meet him? Why not sit down and talk to him? Rather than bashing him up and down the country and bashing him everywhere, why not meet him? Sit down and respect them for what they are and what they've done for this country as well. Clearly this announcement from the hospital can be viewed as a direct message to the government parties to stop playing politics with issues. That's what you're doing. That's what you're doing. In a statement, the group said that it is more than willing to meet the government to discuss the relocation of the hospital from Hollis Street. However, it added that for delivery of an integrated patient care at the Park campus, St. Vincent's Health Group must retain ownership of the site. And that's their position. So why not meet him and talk to him? You know what I mean? As I said, I believe that this whole saga is more now to do this week with a by-election in Dublin Bay South. And that's a sad state of affairs that we can kick the sisters up and down the streets and all over the country and bash them. And Deputy Tobin is right. There's an apartheid here. There's bigotry here. There's hate speech here, which we're jumping up and down every day of the week talking about it. There were horrible things done by some members of different orders and by priests. And are we going to stay bashing all the rest of the good ones forever? The good people that have given so much service to educate our people and run the hospitals. And when the mothers were running the hospitals, they were clean, there was no MRSA, and they were run properly. Not the champions of a health service that we have now. So I think it's appalling the way the language has been used here and the way the sisters have been harangued and bullied and studied. And you won't sit down and meet them. No, you're allowed to get Tangiana votes in the by-election. You delay and procrastinate and delay and delay and delay. And the good sisters up and down the country that educated the most of us and brothers have been tarnished and destroyed. The good name. The bad ones have no talk at any point. They should be rooted out and dealt with. And anyone who suffered abuse and met someone on the side today should be compensated and helped. But this bashing of the religious orders in this house, it makes me sick to my core. It's a Christian country, but the Christian attitude here to our religious is shockingly disgusting. And the teacher and everybody else atarnished her, engaged in it. He started off this because of the Dublin by-election. We know that they had a big vote there for the repeal, I think 70% or something. And this is the electorate they're playing to. And it's so sad that they dumped the sisters under the bus. But worse than that, they'll allow women to have babies, give birth in hospitals that are totally unfreeze. Why don't you go and buy a site elsewhere and leave the sisters alone. Buy a site of CPO or whatever and move on. Thank you.
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