26 Nov 2019, 15:00
The Joint Committee on Health will get an update on the building of the new National Children’s Hospital tomorrow, Wednesday, at a meeting in Leinster House, Committee Room 3 at 11.30am.
Chairman of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board, Fred Barry is scheduled to appear before the Committee of TDs and Senators to discuss the project.
Speaking before the meeting, Committee chair Dr Michael Harty said: “There is ongoing speculation about the likely final cost of the new children’s hospital. The degree of uncertainty about the cost has not been helped by a vast underestimation of the project when it was first approved by Government. Tomorrow’s meeting will allow the Committee to assess how costs are being managed and the extent to which the hospital will be built on time.”
The discussion on the new National Children’s Hospital is the second session of the Health Committee’s meeting tomorrow and will commence at 11.30 am.
The meeting opens in the morning with a discussion on the Report of the Working Group on Access to Contraception at 9am.
The examination of the Report will give the Committee an opportunity to examine the best way to structure a new scheme, and how it will be rolled out to both women and men. Speaking in advance of the meeting, Dr Harty said: “We need to ensure that cost and accessibility issues around contraception are removed as barriers to family planning for all our citizens and the Committee will want to examine how a universal fully-funded State scheme can be introduced in 2020”
Watch proceedings live here.