Fianna Fáil's health spokesperson has said his party does not have confidence in the Government on health.
Stephen Donnelly was speaking to Newstalk’s Moncrieff after yesterday's formal apology from the Health Minister Simon Harris over his failure to provide the Dáil with the full information regarding the cost overruns at the National Children’s Hospital.
His apology was branded “feeble” by opposition parties and a Sinn Féin motion of no confidence in him is due to be debated next week.
Fianna Fáil has already indicated that it will not support the motion – as doing so would breach the confidence and supply arrangement with Fine Gael and bring down the Government.
Health
Deputy Donnelly told Sean Moncrieff that if Minister Harris was working in the private sector he would already have been fired - however he said Fianna Fáil could not support the motion.
“The question for us is not do we have confidence in the Government on Healthcare – we don’t,” he said.
“The question is, are you willing to trigger a general election? There are two reasons why at the moment the answer to that is no.
“The first is the Children’s Hospital. We have a very small window of opportunity to try and get these costs back down."
He said that calling a General Election would result in the country being without a Government “for three to four months” – with the project set to continue in the meantime.
Brexit
He agreed that Fianna Fáil could put pressure on the Government in other ways, but warned that the “problem is, Sinn Féin are playing chicken with the future of the country.”
He noted that we are now “45 days away from a Brexit deadline.”
“The [UK] Prime Minister is talking about crash-out Brexits and tens of thousands of jobs at risk. The Taoiseach is taking about deploying troops to the border. This is an existential threat for the Republic,” he said.
“What do Sinn Féin want to do? They want to pull down the Government in Dublin; they want to pull down the Dáil.
“That would leave Ireland, at a critical time, without a voice in Europe.”
Apology
In his apology to the Dáil yesterday, Minister Harris insisted it "would never be my intention to mislead Dáil Éireann."
He claimed he was "not in a position to give commercially sensitive figures" when questioned about the overruns by Fianna Fáil deputy Barry Cowen in September – but admitted that he should have informed the House that a "process was ongoing to finalise costs and that updated cost would be known once that process was concluded."
He said a Government inquiry into the overruns will report back next month and insisted "we will not be found wanting when it comes to acting against any entity or any company if errors were made."
The Health Minister formally apologises to the Dáil, 12-02-2018.He told the Dáil last September that spending on the project was "in line with the expected expenditure profile" and the budget for the project remained just over €1bn.
On Thursday, newly-published memos revealed Minister Harris knew of a likely €191m overrun in August - as well as a possible additional €200m claim from a construction company.
Minister Harris ultimately informed the Government of a €450m overspend in November.
It is now believed the project will cost at least €1.7bn.
Additional reporting Jack Quann
