Richard O'Donoghue urges simple 'box' design over children's hospital
Richard O'Donoghue criticised the design and maintenance costs of the children's hospital and advocated for simpler, more maintainable 'box' hospitals, citing Limerick as an example. He cited the PwC report's finding on design finalisation and acknowledged the complexity of tertiary paediatric care.
Hospital design critique
O'Donoghue argued that the existing children's hospital design is impractical and expensive to maintain, listing elements such as round curtains, round glass and bespoke furnishings as drivers of ongoing cost. He called on the government to avoid repeating that design in future projects and questioned the value of maintaining unusually specified fittings compared with simpler alternatives.
'Box' hospital approach and cost efficiency
He promoted the approach taken in Limerick, saying a simple 'box' building is easier to build, maintain and extend. He suggested that building more conventional hospital boxes would allow the minister's budget to go further, provide more beds and deliver more care for the same or lower price.
PwC report and contract timing
O'Donoghue referenced the PwC report, saying it concluded that a finalised design was not in place prior to contract issuing. He presented this as a significant issue in the children's hospital procurement and said his understanding of that conclusion stands, while noting he 'stands to be correct' on the point.
Tertiary paediatric complexity and design balance
While critical of the hospital's bespoke features, he said he would not be against good design for a national children's hospital. He emphasised the need for design to accommodate complex surgery, rare disease treatment and integrated ward-surgery layouts, and to align with established paediatric protocols and international consultation.
Parliamentary exchange
He closed his remarks after making his points about design, maintenance and the PwC findings and then yielded the floor to Deputy Brendan Smith.
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If we ever have a case again where we have a design like the children's hospital, can the government please not do it? And look at what we've done in Limerick, we've built a box. People want boxes to be built because you can add on to a box, you can put a box down. They want care. The cost of what it's going to cost to maintain the children's hospital on round curtains, round glass, furnishings that have to be specially made, the cost of even trying to maintain a hospital that is existing, how many hospital beds could we provide for people with building a box? The design, all the other hospitals are built like boxes, we can actually maintain them and the Minister's budget will go further to make sure that we can give more beds at a better price and more care. Thank you. First of all, I think design is important and I think one of the issues with the children's hospital was perhaps, and the PwC report reported that it didn't have a finalised design prior to contract issuing and that's one of the conclusions, is my understanding, I stand to be correct on that. I wouldn't be against good design for a national children's hospital, that's important. And also would make the point there is a complexity in terms of a tertiary hospital where very complex surgery will be carried out, where rare diseases will be addressed, where world of class medicine will be deployed in consultation with children's hospitals around the world and in accordance with established protocols in the paediatric medicine field. So the positioning and placement of surgeries for example, the integration of that with wards and so on. Thank you. Thank you. It's more than that. Deputy Brendan Smith. Thank you.
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