National Children's Hospital bodies cancel Public Accounts Committee meeting

The board of the new National Children’s Hospital has cancelled its appearance with the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday.

With an election due to be called by the end of the week, it is unlikely that the beleaguered project will be scrutinised for several months.

The project has been hit with a spate of delays and a runaway budget. It is now not expected the hospital will open until 2026.

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The National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) and Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) were due to appear in front of PAC to examine financial statements for 2022.

The committee has now been told that the heads of both bodies are not available to attend a meeting.

Sinn Féin’s Mairéad Farrell, who is chair of PAC, said CHI confirmed its attendance in early October but revoked it last Friday.

The NPHDB told the committee in October it could not attend a meeting this week due to the “unavailability of a key witness”. It confirmed on Monday that this was Chief Officer David Gunning but “no reason for that unavailability has been provided to the Committee”.

“Both bodies have requested to meet in late November or early December,” Ms Farrell said. “The Committee is conscious that the 33rd Dáil is likely to be dissolved this week.

“The Committee is disappointed that neither body is willing to make itself available to appear before the Committee and account for the expenditure under its remit, particularly when the National Children’s Hospital is a project of huge public interest and significant public expenditure.”

“The Committee is concerned that if a trend were to develop whereby the Committee’s scheduling of its meetings is contested when fair notice has been provided, and no clear rationale has been provided for a body’s unavailability, that this could undermine the transparency and accountability for public expenditure that is central to the democratic process.”

The Irish Mirror contacted CHI and NPHDB for comment.

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