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MINISTER FOR HEALTH Stephen Donnelly has said speculation on the cost of the National Children’s Hospital is not helpful but that it is going to cost more than the previously sanctioned €1.4 billion.
Speaking to reporters today at the opening of the Ballyboden primary care centre in Dublin, the Minister once again refused to provide a projected final cost or completion date for the long-delayed children’s hospital.
“It’s not helpful for anybody to be honest, to be speculating as to the cost,” Donnelly said before hitting out at Sinn Féin.
“I’ve noted some of the speculation by Sinn Féin. I think Sinn Féin may inadvertently – I don’t believe they’re doing it on purpose – but inadvertently may be being used as pawns to justify some of the delays and some of the overspend. It’s not helpful,” the Minister said.
Referring to the claims the contractor BAM has made for its work on the hospital, which are currently being disputed, Donnelly said just 2% of the claims made so far have been adjudicated in BAM’s favour.
The claims are being adjudicated upon by the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board’s (NPHDB) representative for disputes.
Conflict has been ongoing between the NPHDB and the developer of the hospital, BAM since 2021 over additional construction cost claims worth €756 million.
This is on top of the estimated construction costs of €1.4 billion.
“The position is very clear. The board is acting on all of our behalf to get this project finished as quickly as possible and for an appropriate amount of monies.
“We need to support them in doing that. There is nobody who can accurately say right now what those decisions are going to be in terms of adjudication. And indeed, whether or not either side might decide to escalate that to the court,” Donnelly said.
He added: “We now need to let the dispute resolution mechanisms and the mediation take their course.”
Making reference again to Sinn Féin, Donnelly said:
“It would be very unhelpful for me or the Taoiseach or the Tánaiste to say ‘we believe the final agreement might be in the following area’, because that will immediately empower certain parties to bid for more money.
“And to be honest, I know Sinn Féin keep asking the question, but I think they fully understand the answer being given.”
Donnelly then said he heard Pearse Doherty “claim in the Dáil earlier this week” that there are “young people emigrating because of the potential cost of the Children’s Hospital”.
“So this is just politics. This is Sinn Féin trying to make a story out of something that we’ve all fully understood since 2018/2019,” Donnelly said.
The Minister seemed to be referring to a comment Doherty made during leaders’ question on Tuesday when he said the RTÉ scandal and the issues with the Children’s Hospital are the “outworking of that type of insider culture of entitlement and incompetence fostered by successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments down through the years”.
Doherty continued: “The broken culture we have here is the reason we have a housing emergency, our health services are creaking at the seams and countless young people are deciding to emigrate, believing they have been forced to do so.”
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Finally, an article about McDonald’s so people can comment on how they never eat there.
Free or not it’s still s**t food..and I use the term food loosely.
Don’t eat there then. Nobody is forcing you to.
I don’t Beachmaster…hardly matters does it?
The McMor is seriously tasty gents
Imagine gawking through your neighbours window, only to call at the door to tell them you don’t like what they’re watching on TV.
Wouldn’t surprise me if my neighbour did that, nosey aul fârt
I usually stop in McDonalds on Grafton St to attend the facilities for a McPiss or McShit but on occassion ill be temped my a big Mac ( tastes like crap even after a heavy night out on the gargle…. ) Ive always liked the chicken nuggets though, even after knowing that probably everything from saw dust to used condoms goes into them….
Beef over Chicken every time in McDo’s Robert. The Beef is 100% legit anyways
I think with McDs and most fast food chains its best not knowing what goes into the food. The worst one ive heard about McDs is how their burgers ( in the US ) are mostly made up from a pink sludge which is washed in ammonia. Dont think they are allowed do that in Europe though…
That’s what Americans need! Chips x infinity!!
You cannot lie, a Big Mac is awesome and if someone put one in front of you when your hungover you would destroy it in seconds. Fact!
Nope.
Give me a bag of chipper chips any day of the week, McDonald’s fries are dirt,
If only you had a choice :(
You said it Mick! Leo Burdocks nom nom….
So now you can all you can eat with your Diet Coke
Don’t forget that’s the States so it’s free refills on the drinks too.. which I like.. but jeebus no don’t be doing that with the fries
I know it’s bad for you but I really do enjoy a Double sausage & egg mc muffin with a hash brown and a cup of coffee every now and then. Maybe once every few months or so. Bloody divine.
let’s break this down…..I’m one of those type 1 diabetics…..the ones who can’t eat a meal with carbs without shooting up first….anyway, I’m one of the good ones, I eat to what my body needs, not to what I want! for a normal meal with a few baby patatoes, heap of veg and meat, I take 4 units of insulin…..IF I had a mc Donalds or any processed take away, I would need to TREBLE my insulin to try and cover it.
Surely not the McSalads?
Great hangover food….mmmmm
Hate their plastic pencils McDonalds call chips.
Fries.
Windbag!!!!!! Those are the Happy Meal free pencils…….try the fries………you can eat them
oops sorry….. comment to Alan Scott
Flour Fries!
Fat boy friers just got fatter
Love McDonald’s, good quality, simple honest food.
After a half a hour after McDonalds food you are hungry again
Just go to Burger King afterwards.
Anyone notice they’re sponsoring the Saturday evening kids film.
Paddy, yeah spot on and the lazy politicians are putting a sugar tax on soft drinks as if it’s the only reason for obesity. For years I was putting on weight but two years ago at just over
20st I said enough is enough. Started to move more and eat less, it’s as simple as that but I still enjoy the odd takeaway and a lovely can of Club orange over ice. Oh and I’m down 7st.
Outrageous. Do the Gardai have a dedicated department that deals with this type of activity?
Tom, went in for a check up recently and whatever measurements the doc used he calculated I was about 5lbs over weight. Doesn’t seem a lot until you realised it’s the same as carrying 5 bags of sugar. It kinda creeps up on ya around the late thirties.Odd thing is that I used to drink, smoke and eat a lot of junk food in my 20′s.. not so much anymore but it’s the sedentary lifestyle that comes with a relatively good job and flopping on the couch after work that’s eventually caught up. Eating healthy is only part of it.
Beachmaster.. if you can’t see the hypocrisy of RTE banging on about obesity rates while in a sponsorship deal with McDonalds aimed specifically at children ….
A bag of sugar is 1kg not 1lb
Well done , Tom !
Ok so I’m not so bad.. Thanks Eircodes.
Paddy, serious question: What is the correlation between a good job and sedentary life? I too have a good job, but I cycle into work. I also manage to go to to ucd to swim in their fabulous pool. I would not agree that having a good job implies becoming lazy! Just curious why oh wrote that.
Paolo, to be honest it’s just a phrase meaning I’m not digging ditches not that there’s anything wrong with that and truth be told it’s just a lie I’m telling myself to justify the extra few pounds. Being stuck on my ass 10 hours a day should be a reason to exercise not an excuse for getting a gut. Thankfully I caught this before it started to become a major issue.
Free food…. Enough chunky monkeys in the country already
St. McDonald, patron saint of obesity.
There should be a health levy on McDonalds.
Or people could take some personal responsibility. I think we have enough levies in this country already, thank you very much.
**Newsflash**.Fat people existed before McDonald’s did.
I really dont believe McDonalds is responsible for our obesity crisis. I think the local deli in the garages/supermarkets is having a huge impact on the waistlines especially of our teenagers. Pure shI!te food
I agree. And it’s the parents putting the money in their pockets. A few homemade sambos is what I got.
awww, poor thing.
Thx hun :’(
Yep people are endowed with free will and personal responsibility but funniliy enough, despite this being the case, obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes still exist. Diabetes is amounst the biggest single burden on our healthcare system.. Saying people can choose not to eat junk or eat somewhere else is true but doesnt really add any value to the conversation. People can choose to drink responsiblity and socially but many dont and we see the fall out in accident and emergency departments every weekend…. In short its a cop put to suggest that people can go elsewhere and not eat junk food ( problem solved )….. Fast Food companies have certain reaponsiblities in this respect as do drinks companies.
God bless America. Fighting the good fight against health fascism
444 calories in a large McDonalds French fries a Big Mac burger 508 calories add a large McDonalds coke 212 calories. Still some room left? sure why not go for a McFlurry 323 calories. Only 1487 calories in all.
Cyanide is calorie free. Must get me some of that.
Dont think anything will beat the pizza burger that Burger King where selling a few years back….. something along the lines of 3000 calories
When I’m dieting and need to count calories, I stay away from Mc Donald’s. That way, the peoole who are healthy and don’t need to count calories, and the people who don’t care about their weight. can enjoy their treat in peace. Everybody wins.
Interestingly, most people get their cyanide from almonds or pistachio nuts, neither of which are calorie-free.
I think you’ve had enough phantom your profile pic don’t look too healthy :/
That’s the beer talking
If we were to go back to these FF Chains being a treat once a week we’d be all better off weight wise – putting people in early graves with this along with the Sugar Epidemic !!
Looking forward to splitting an order of these fries 4 ways
Big Mac and chips…
Fat bastdids
They have to get rid of their recycled cardboard some way
Lee Oswald I just finished watching 11.22.63 you were great in it :)
I’m thinking of making a documentary. I’ll just eat mc donalds food and nothing else for breakfast lunch and dinner. I just need a catchy title, mmmmm let me see..
have your say