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14th February 2024
10:26am GMT
There has been major backlash after the Government approved an additional €500 million for the new Children's Hospital.
The project has been hit with delay after delay and has exceeded its original budget.
Yesterday, the Government approved further funding for the project, bringing the total to €2.24 billion.
Parents have been expressing their shock online and slated the Government for letting the project drag on for so long.
The Department of Health claims the work will be complete by the end of this year, but the public is not feeling hopeful about the development.
"Project costs, like other areas of the construction sector and wider society, have also been impacted by other external pressures including the impacts to supply chains arising from the pandemic and other global events such as the war in Ukraine and Brexit," the Department of Health shared in a statement.
Parents and politicians took to social media to express their outrage over the delays.
Mary Lou McDonald stated: "The Taoiseach promised the new National Children’s Hospital, short of an asteroid hitting the planet, would be complete in 2020 It’s now 4 years late and the only asteroid to hit us is the mind-boggling cost soaring from €700m to at least €2.2billion."
Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly promised that it would be a "world-class hospital".
"I acknowledge that a significant amount of money is being spent on this project, but it must not be forgotten that this is a hospital built to serve children and their families for the next 100 years. The new hospital building is unprecedented in scale and technological advancement," he stated.
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