Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
TÁNAISTE SIMON HARRIS has said that the State will “robustly push back” against any additional cost demands from the developer of the National Children’s Hospital.
The relationship between the construction firm BAM, the board overseeing the hospital construction and the state has soured over the years over the delayed project.
The board overseeing the hospital’s development accused BAM last year of having a “complete disregard for sick children”.
There are reports that BAM is seeking an additional €100m in costs but Harris this morning told reporters: “The developer can look for whatever the developer wants, but the State is going to continue to robustly push back.”
He added that people need to be “careful when quoting figures that the developer is looking for in additional claims”.
Harris remarked that “so many claims that have been lodged by the developer have not been paid out, have been found not to be valid”.
“I saw recent figures that show only a tiny fraction of claims lodged by the developer have actually been found to have validity and the state will continue to push that back,” said Harris.
The Tánaiste further remarked that he wants the “taxpayers of this country to know that the State has successfully pushed back many claims to date and will continue to adopt that approach”.
Harris added that the “plan is still to have this hospital handed over to the State having completed its work in June of this year” and that the hospital is “in the final stages of its completion in terms of its construction”.
However, he said there will then be a “commissioning period of time that needs to happen as efficiently as possible”.
“There has to be the clinical kit out of the hospital, and that’s a vital part of the commissioning work that needs to take place,” said Harris.
“But we’re now within touching distance of this National Children’s Hospital finally being available for the children of this country,” he added.
The Journal yesterday reported that this “commissioning period” could take at least six months, which would result in the hospital not being fully open until 2026.
A briefing note from the Department of Health to the new Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill states that moving patients from the numerous children’s hospitals cannot be undertaken in winter due to “clinical risks”.
“In order to minimise clinical risk to sick children, migration must be carried out when emergency activity is at its quietest and elective activity must be reduced so that there is the minimal number of patients to be transferred and the maximum number of staff available to achieve this safely,” the department added.
In addition to moving patients, this commissioning will also include moving in machinery, getting labs operational and carrying out workforce training for three hospital teams of up to 4,000 staff, who will all be working under a new digital health system.
It is understood that the timeframe between July and October is most likely too tight to get the commissioning work completed, however the timeline will be scrutinised in the coming weeks to see if acceleration can be achieved.
It is understood that spring 2026 is now seen as the optimum time for the large-scale logistical plan.
“With over 4,600 clinical spaces, this will be a complex phase, which will take at least six months,” the department said.
-With additional reporting from Christina Finn
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
“isnt that what you tend to do during an election” – Pat Rabbitte
@Charlie Wrex: I can just see the horror and blood draining from the faces of the far-right extremist posters here on The Journal, the game is up for them!! A year of anti-immigration propaganda all gone up in a puff of smoke in one day!
@Joey Westland: white supremacists betrayed.
But sure isn’t he really a Democrat who laughed saying he’d have an easy time getting republican votes as they’re idiots. :-)
@Micheal OLainn: Well, at least they had a fun week lost in their delusions, it’s actually so funny when you look back at their reaction, gas carry on!
@Peter McGlynn: Ain’t that the truth! A lot of confused xenophobes out there tonight!
Sorry Peter but that statement was proven to be a lie, it was one of the fake news stories
I actually find the comment section on this website staggering. The vast vast majority of Trump supporters are not racist white Neo-Nazis and are happy Trump disavowed and condemned the fringe group who gave the Roman salutes. They are vile people and do not represent Trump or the people who support him.
Are the nearly 1 in 3 Latinos who voted for Trump white nationalists? Trump won more of the black vote than Romney, McCain or George Bush, are they all racist?
Liberals can keep sneering and living in their pretend world that all Trump supporters are either racist, sexist, homophobic, Xenophobic or whatever other pejorative or you can ask the question why did all these people vote for Trump? What was it that drew them to him? If you honestly believe the answer is fear, sexism or racism or these other nonsense reasons the press continue to push you should seriously reevaluate where you get your news.
Robert, they voted for him because they believed he’d do as he said.
Robert, not all Trump supporters are fascist, racist or homophobic, however they are all stupid.
Stupid to seriously consider a multi-millionaire business whose lawyers utilise the internal workings of the federal tax system to allow him to avoid paying tax, an ‘outsider’.
Stupid to believe that the best qualification for the main politician in a democracy is ‘not being a politician’.
Stupid to believe that a candidate whose concept of truth and facts is so fundamentally delusional will still hold up their end of the bargain once he comes to power.
Stupid to believe that intellectualism, intelligence and logic are things to be scorned as ‘liberal’.
Colin is right but people, people, people, stupid is not exclusively the intellectual property of the United States. Look at our last general election in tipperary and wexford Personally trump would never resonate with me. Sexist, racist and a proven dishonest man. People would pay tax elect a man who on purpose pays none. Only hope his handlers have power over him. Democrats need to work to take back the house and block his every turn
He burys the hatchet, he admits he’s wrong, he gives a straight answer, how refreshing for a politician. Bloody brilliant. Anyone see our own FF Billy Kelleher on TV3 last night not answering the qeuestion about water charges ? He must have been asked 5 or 6 times would they abolish water charges and every time he gave a non answer. When will the Irish people say enough is enough of this spineless bunch of traitors ?
Far right extremists !! ….. it’s so funny. 60 million US citizens are far right extremists. Thats why they can’t control the amount of people trying to get in to America. Hundreds of Mexicans flood over the border every day cos they can’t wait to get into the far right extremist US
Factually inaccurate
J P O Conner will be crying into his cornflakes this morning. LOL !!
@frash: ” it’s so funny. 60 million US citizens are far right extremists.”
The same way 1.6 billion muslims are terrorists.. Am I Right???
Trump should start manufacturing his own brand of flip flops.
@Ross Stewart: He could be a Fianna Failer at this rate he’s flipflopped so much.
Trump flops
Jazus Donald, spread the u-turns out over the four years. Easy known he’s not a professional politician. Lol
Nah, if he gets all the u turns out of the way in one go, the electorate will forget about them in a few weeks. That’s where our politicians go wrong. Drip feeding the u turns just drags out the lies. Will they ever cop on to it? Probably not and hopefully not.
This is BRILLIANT NEWS! Effectively Trump is becoming the de facto / proxy Democrat in The White House. Since his election he has;
1. Reversed his stance on climate change.
2. Broken his promise to prosecute Hillary.
3. Said ‘The Wall’ was only ever a metaphor.
4. Disowned the Alt-Right (who wouldn’t to be fair, they’re like the ISIS of the West)
5. Is planning to retain much of Obamacare.
6. Has removed his pledge to ban Muslims from entering America from his website.
It is so FUNNY how the Alt-Right got taken for a complete ride, and we now have a more liberal and left-wing President than Hillary Clinton, LOL.
@Joey Westland: I’m not sure that Trump will be liberal but he has certainly loved far from the extreme prejudices of his more fundamentalist supporters.
Trump stays true to his role as a gifted con man.
@Micheal OLainn: agreed Micheal, not liberal, but more liberal than HIllary for sure. I think a few of the resident Alt-Right commenters on The Journal are going to be crushed at today’s news!
@Joey Westland: very true!
@Westland: You must be the most naive person that ever lived.LOL!
@Kieran C: Now now Kieran, just because your Alt-Right Utopia has gone up in a poof of smoke, no need to throw your toys out of the pram, PMSL!!
@Joey Westland: Glove in arse comes to mind
@Joey Westland: I’ve already run out of the popcorn and he is not even in office,yet.. ..
All the poor snowflakes on the far right have been taken in by Don the Con..Hilarious.
‘have been hoodwinked’
@Francis Mc Carthy: I still don’t trust that orange eejit
See we told you he wasn’t right wing, glad you agree he’s great now. Obviously we already knew he leaned more to the left than your cult leader Clinton. Glad you’re finally seeing the light Joey
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: How can anybody with the tiniest bit of sanity left in them, trust that orange eejit ?
No wonder he owns restaurants, that way the staff can’t kill him when he keeps changing his order
Laughing!
I can think of a few alt-right types who comment on The Journal and who will be infuriated by Trump’s dilution of his positions.
Someone should check on Val
@Micheal OLainn: Jokes on you. Trump just has to lie so the plebs have some sense of satisfaction.
@Jimmy Rustle: nothing to do with me. I never supported him and I never trusted him.
Micheal, they will never admit they were wrong, no matter what. Look at Jimmy Rustles comment, for example,. Pathetic.
@Jimmyjoe Wallace: they can’t afford the loss of face in admitting that they were suckered by a con man.
@Jimmy Rustle: are you alt-right?
@Micheal OLainn: Nah I would consider my self centered if anything.
@Micheal OLainn: ctrl alt delete?
@Jimmy Rustle: self centred is a feature of the alt-right. Thanks for the confirmation.
@Jimmyjoe Wallace: Rustle U turning as much as Trump!
@Micheal OLainn: Don’t be silly. The majority of the alt right just care about western culture. Is our culture and freedom not something that we should pride ourselves in and protect? Skin color does not equal culture which this “Alt-Right” group has got totally wrong. I don’t see any articles about the supremacist black panther party anywhere. Supremacy exists on both sides. I think it’s quite self centered to focus all your attention on white supremacy and not acknowledge there’s supremacy groups for all races.
Awwww you’re so desperate to try to exorcise some of that pent up anger and bitterness cos Trump won you just can’t wait for him ti slip up or do something wrong. It’s hilarious to watch. You Clinton groupies are one pathetic bunch. Trump won and he’s gonna be brill. LoL
Frash, Trump won and immediately dumped his campaign promises.
The alt-right video of Nazi salutes and celebrations has made them politically unacceptable.
Trump was quickly expedient to dump the racists and Nazis.
@Micheal OLainn: They won’t be happy with that, considering all they did to get their guy into power. They’re already disgruntled gun nuts, now they’re angry, betrayed disgruntled gun nuts
the Trump foundation has also just admitted “self-dealing” in contravention of tax law in a submission to the IRS
otherwise known as embezzlement
@stopit: Trump may need Executive immunity!
He’s still a pup though.
@Irish Soccer Lad ⚽️: he has sold a pup to his more fundamentalist right wing supporters.
Pointless prosecuting Clinton now anyway. She’s finished politically. Erased off the map of American political life.
Donald Trump was never part of the alt-right so hardly needs to qualify his position on that. (except to liberals I guess)
Climate change is a myth so irrelevant in terms of his presidency.
As the polls indicate..an air of optimism is sweeping across the US.
Once the Washington swamp is drained the mood will be even stronger.
His pronouncements on TTIP are music to the ears of people right across the EU.
@Frederick Burden: Oh dear! Looks like Frederick didn’t get the Memo, the Great Christian Alt-Right Dream is over buddy, back to 4Chan for you, LOL!
@Frederick Burden: you have sidestepped Trump’s reversal of his major vows.
He has gathered a team of turkeys, what makes you think they’ll vote for Christmas?
@Joey Westland: It’s too painful and embarrassing for the reactionary right to admit that Trump has reversed many of his positions. They can’t admit that they were actually suckered. The con man has struck again. Bigots have been sold a pup.
@Joey Westland:
No dream ever existed.
Except as a manifestation of liberal paranoia.
Realists prefer to focus on substance rather than hysteria.
@ joey westland @Frederick Burden…you know talking to yourself is an acceptable..but talking to yourself on the journal.ie..schizophrenia..maybe you should seek help.
@Micheal OLainn:
‘Sold a pup’
Coming from a Hillary supporter that’s too much irony.
At least our dog has a bark.
@sparky:
Different person actually.
Do try to keep up to date.
@Frederick Burden: I supported Bernie Sanders, not Clinton.
Trump is even worse than Clinton, which is saying a lot.
@Frederick. .that’s what they all say..seek help it’s never to late.
@Frederick Burden: “Climate change is a myth so irrelevant in terms of his presidency.”
You should submit your findings for peer review to a scientific journal. They’ll be delighted to hear this news.
@sparky:
Different person actually.
Do try to keep up to date.
@Micheal OLainn:
Either way, a Democrat.
Republicans are back in business.
@Seán Ó Briain: Frederick Burden is a climate scientist and expert. He has 3 doctorates in science by his own account.
@Frederick Burden: Trump seems to be moving significantly away from Republican positions and policies.
@Micheal OLainn:
‘He has 3 doctorates in science by his own account.’
First to my knowledge.
Looks like he was saving the pivot for after the election
@Micheal OLainn: A PhD in Gullibility! > ‘gullibility is a failure of social intelligence in which a person is easily tricked or manipulated into an ill-advised course of action. It is closely related to credulity, which is the tendency to believe unlikely propositions that are unsupported by evidence.’
Yup! Sounds familiar!
@Joey Westland: yes, Frederick Burden has a particular talent for gullibility and credulity but only if from an extreme right position.
@Frederick Burden: Are you sure that’s the bark you’re hearing, or is he just farting in your general direction?
Poor Trumpkins. Duped by their Cheeto Jesus.
@Daisy Chainsaw:
A Republican in the White House is all that matters at the end of the day.
That was the whole point of the exercise after all.
@Dave O Keeffe…your the only turkey here
Looks like the Republicans backed a Democrat and he won
John Smith *you’re
“Once the Washington swamp is drained the mood will be even stronger.”
Trolling is extremely poor from you..
I’ll have to give you a 0/5 for that pathetic effort..
Trump suckered the media.
@Micheal OLainn:
He definitely suckered the liberal press, that’s for sure.
A sucker punch.
@Frederick Burden: Breitbart aren’t liberal, they’re Alt-Right.
@Joey Westland:
The liberal press were the ones making these claims about him.
@Frederick Burden: he suckered the reactionary right wing media as well as the liberal media who all bought into his narrative. It’s hilarious how quickly and fundamentally Trump is changing his positions.
@Micheal OLainn: breitbart is reactionary right and alt-right, full of prejudice, hate and extremism.
@Micheal OLainn:
Poetry and prose. An old cliche.
@Frederick Burden: lies, more lies and changing lies.
Trump never had a reputation for being honest.
@Micheal OLainn:
I guess the American electorate decided that he more honest than Crooked Hillary all the same.
I fully support them on that decision.
They didn’t really though as less of them voted for him than for Clinton
@Frederick Burden: I expect no better from an individual who has posted greetings of a certain type saluting Hitler.
@frederick: breitbart currently have a front page article “broken promise: trump doesn’t wish to pursue Clinton email charges”
It seems the alt right press feel suckered too
@Micheal OLainn:
Once Michael.
Sarcasm.
YAWN!
@Ross Stewart:
What’s the point of pursuing Clinton?
She’s dead politically, a spent force.
It would serve no real purpose at this point.
Trump won the White House, that’s all that matters at the end of the day.
Henceforth he shall be known as Donald the Merciful.
I think America will be surprised by Donald Trump’s presidency.
Now that the fog of lies and deception is beginning to clear.
@Frederick Burden: Think away!!
@Frederick Burden: ahhh, pathetic. You supported Trump because of his avowed policies, the policies he is now reversing. You are as inconsistent and as capricious as Trump and that says a lot.
@Micheal OLainn:
I supported the outsider Trump to bring an end to the liberal dystopia suffocating American political life.
Anyway, I’m not here to blow my own trumpet.
@Micheal OLainn:
Trump’s legacy will only be known at the end of his tenure as president Michael.
@Frederick Burden: You backed the wrong horse Burden, you should have supported a Klan candidate, Trump is a Democrat President now.
@Frederick Burden: I’m off to Paddy Powers to see if they’ll give me odds on Trump even lasting to mid terms before he gets bored with having to make decisions that affect others than him.
@Joey Westland:
Rules of racing. First past the post.
Tear up your ticket Joey, you ain;t getting paid.
@Joey Westland:
In racing parlance, you were sold a ringer in Hillary Joey.
@Frederick Burden: you may have to tone down your Nazi salutes to Hitler.
Frederick, are you sure you’re not blowing your own trump, pet?
@Micheal OLainn:
Desperation Michael.
A terrible affliction.
@Frederick Burden:
You won’t convince the Islamo-fascists on site here. They have lost their clout in the WhiteHouse in Hussein Obama and his MB pals and advisers and the almost certainty, they thought, of another White House bound MB operative in Huma Abedin controlling Hillary as Huma did when Hillary was Sec of State. They’ll be more vengeful than a pit of vipers against Donald Trump, his Swamp-Drainers and supporters.
@Patrick J O’CONNOR: What swamp has he drained ? Humour us with your imagination ..
Laughing my ass off reading all the pissy-pant liberal comments here!
Trump is just saying what you and your liberal media want to hear to stop ye pooping your pants even more than you have been since his election victory!
He’s not even president yet, I’m sure his plans are underway, nice and quietly under the radar, maybe a little watered sown, sure that’s politics for you!
What a sorry circus this whole thing has been. I respect that Hillary Clinton is political sewage, and I respect those who are not filled with hate and voted for Trump with the best of intentions.
As for the alt. right, the pseudoscientists, the Alex Jones paranoid nation, the weird Irish contingent of bros with Trump profile pictures and all those who voted for Trump on some of the more bent out of shape, prejudiced and misinformed aspects of his campaign that he now at least appears to be not as enthusiastic as you on? I know I should take the high road but:
“Hahahahaha.”
You got played. You got played most of all. Lunatics.
@Stu Bear:
Oh and save me the Tumblr bingo rhetoric. Liberal, conservative. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you are. You are an ordinary citizen and are not on the ballot for what looks to be just another traditional BUSINESS as usual presidency.
It’s not your time. It’s not those evil liberals time either. There was no revolution. It’s just another day at the office.
Incremental is good business Donald,- so go incremental.
@Patrick J O’CONNOR: LOCK HIM UP!!LOCK HIM UP!!! LOCK HIM UP!!!
I think you meant excremental
I’ll say this, The man has some balls to go back on these promises before he even gets to the whitehouse. I’ve been saying he was going to do this for months now, I really didn’t expect to be proven right so quickly. I’m guessing the only worry now is the idiot he picked for VP. He ‘s hell bent (excuse the pun) on a Christian Theocracy and I’m pretty sure the lunatic alt right are right there with him.
TRUMP was born a democrat. He will die a democrat… The best thought out stroke ever was just played on the thick Americans public
As one who believes man made climate change is a hoax, I followed Trump’s statements closely and he never said he believes of disbelieves in it. He said , it was not important, and that he was not convinced about it, but that is all. He did promise to stop paying into the Paris deal and that he knew where the money was going,—ie into “someone’s back pocket.” So he is not inconsistent. I am worried he might pay into it, but time will tell. Meanwhile it seems he gave the press a right dressing down yesterday. which would be consistent with his campaign statements.
http://nypost.com/2016/11/21/donald-trumps-media-summit-was-a-f-ing-firing-squad/
“a hoax invented by China” that’s pretty definitive right there Val.
@Val Martin: “As an Idiot” is much easier to type Val. We would get the same message.
@Val Martin: Last year a German professor Dr. Friedrich Karl Ewert – a retired geologist and data computation expert – accused NASA GISS of having tampered with the raw data so extensively that it had effectively “invented” global warming. He has painstakingly examined and tabulated all NASA GISS’s temperature data series, taken from 1153 stations and going back to 1881. His conclusion: that if you look at the raw data, as opposed to NASA’s revisions, you’ll find that since 1940 the planet has been cooling, not warming.
@MackPilon: Yeah a German professor with an agenda. And he was wrong. Correcting errors is not creating a hoax.
@Val Martin: Ewert listed some of the trickery employed by Schmidt to exaggerate the appearance of “global warming”.
• Reducing the annual mean in the early phase.
• Reducing the high values in the first warming phase.
• Increasing individual values during the second warming phase.
• Suppression of the second cooling phase starting in 1995.
• Shortening the early decades of the datasets.
• With the long-term datasets, even the first century was shortened
The temperature records at Armagh, the CET and Pragues Clementinum do not show any of the ‘computer model’ trickery which is the basis for the warming scam.
Amazing how you’re so willing accept every word of one scientist. But question every word of a thousand other scientists.
Agenda maybe?
Don’t forget to check out my videos on the wind energy scam , valmartinirelandyoutube myth about wind energy” subscribe and comment. Another good Irish one is the Irish Energy Blog, I am not the author of that, but I do comment, over 90,000 views
@Val Martin: had to scroll down for ages to find a sensible comment Val, I see that the snowflakes are foaming and frothing while President Elect Trump plays them like the master he is. He has thrown them a few baubles and they are scrambling around as if the have found the Holy Grail.
Mack likes Val. Val Iikes Mack.
Irrational conspiracy theory has brought them together. It’s beautiful
Ctrl z
Seriously how can any one trust this guy ????? He hasn’t even taken up office yet and already he’s lied to the US people….complete morons the lot of them!
FINANCE THEIR PROJECTS AND DREAMS
(queenethloans@gmail.com)
we give out loan in a low interest rate of 2%
The decision to embark on a project with 2, is one thing; Find funding to enable them to realize that is another.
In order to facilitate access to funding and concerns extend its program to strengthen the purchasing power
of citizens, are a group of individuals meeting within
a pprivate club and registered said advocates have access to better living conditions. We give credit
to all people of good character in well-researched and accessible to ordinary people conditions.
The quality of service of our agency will help you decide the personal loan that suits you offer any:
* Credit Financing * business loan * Investment funds
* Debt consolidation loans * The credit line
* Some mortgages *Acquisition of credit * Personal loans
You are the sole command and decide how much you are satisfied. Must be accountable for their spending. We take
care of providing you the amount needed to carry out your projects.
queeneth loans is a legit and certified loan company, well trusted and reliable money lending company.
apply today for more informations at ( QUEENETHLOANS@GMAIL.COM )
This is a re-education process as opposed to a presidency.
Right-wingers decided eighteen months ago to use Donald Trump in order to promote anti-immigration ideas and nationalist economic policies. Donald Trump decided eighteen months ago to use right-wingers in order to become president. So far both sides have got what they wanted out of the alliance. Let’s see what the future holds.
have your say