Leo Varadkar has said a 100-year view was needed when assessing the cost of a project as significant as the new children's hospital at St James's in Dublin.
Over the weekend The Irish Times reported the contract to build the long-awaited national children's hospital in Dublin has been awarded to BAM Ireland for a price understood to be close to €1 billion, €300 million more than the original budget.
On Monday, the Minister for Social Affairs, and a former minister for health, said he was unable to comment on the escalating cost as he had not seen a detailed costing in relation to the project.
He said the main reason for the higher cost was construction inflation and every year the project was delayed the more expensive it became.
“The figure that we were working off was €650 million, not including equipment, IT. Now the Board (National Paediatric Development Board) has to make a business case to the HSE which will outline all that and that goes to Cabinet.
“Look at Terminal Two (in Dublin Airport) , it cost a fortune, some people still like to have that row over where it was located. But it has worked out really well for the airport and will pay for itself over time. The Children’s Hospital is a project that you have to take a 100 year look at.”
Mr Varadkar also said the "decision was made where we would have the hospital, based on clinical grounds. It was not based on the cheapest place to build it, or nearest to motorway."
The €1 billion tender accepted for the proposed new Children’s Hospital in Dublin indicates an expensive development on a cost-per-bed basis, according to a source with knowledge of the industry.
The price to be charged for building the hospital also appears high when compared with the cost of hospitals built recently in the UK and US, the source said.
The source, who has experience of building hospitals, said he considered a €1 million per bed price as reasonable, including equipment, whereas the cost for the children’s hospital is €1.9 million per bed.
There is continued opposition to the choosen site in some quarters.
Fin Breatnach, a retired children’s cancer specialist, has claimed children will die or suffer disability because of the decision to locate the new children’s hospital at the St James Hospital site.
Dr Breatnach, who is also involved with the Connolly for Kids campaign, opposes the placement of the hospital in Dublin on the St James's hospital site and said the sums being quoted were "crazy, crazy money.
He told the Pat Kenny show on Newstalk: "We know there are children dying and becoming disabled as I speak every year because we do not have a maternity hospital physically connected to a children's hospital."
Dr Breatnach said specialists in adult medicines, such as cardiac, would not operate on a child, only a paediatric cardiac specialist will.
Dr Breatnach also said there has not been a “single study” to support the claim that clinical outcomes for children would be better as a result of placing the new hospital on the St James’s site.
He said a national hospital able to meet the needs of all the children in the country will not be fully completed until a maternity hospital is co-located with the children’s hospital.
The placement of a maternity hospital on the St James Hospital site is planned but no application for planning permission has been lodged.
However, Mr Breathnach claimed that “maternity co-location on the James’s site is just not going to happen.”
"Maternity has to be there," said Dr Breatnach. "Fifteen consultants in Crumlin and Temple St who care for the sickest children, operate on congenital heart disease and other major problems, say that avoidable death and disability will occur if there is not a maternity hospital co-located."
At a cost of almost €1 billion Dr Breatnach said the new children’s hospital was “literally not affordable” where it was located and said building it on a green field site would be 25 per cent cheaper.