The cost of building the country's new hospitals has risen by almost 40% in less than three years.
Figures released by the Department of Health to RTE News show that the major building projects under the National Development Plan are now going to cost significantly more than originally thought.
Most of the projects, which include major developments in Dublin, Cork and Galway, are just beginning construction.
The Government launched the National Development Plan in late 1999 and allocated £2 billion to major infrastructural projects in the health sector.
These included major projects such as the Mater, Temple Street and St Vincent's Hospitals in Dublin, a new hospital in Naas, significant expansion in Cork and Galway University Hospitals and developments in Portlaoise and Tullamore hospitals.
As with the roads sector, it has now emerged that construction costs in the health projects have risen by almost 40% since the National Development Plan began almost three years ago.
Much of this is due to inflation in the construction sector, in particular a 20% wage rise in October 2000. And while construction inflation is currently running at 9%, the costs of all the major projects have been revised upwards.
The Hospital Planning Office in the Department of Health estimates that the biggest project, the construction of two new hospitals on the Mater Hospital site in Dublin, could end up costing over half a billion euro. The original estimate for this project was €230 million.
The first phase of St Vincent's Hospital in Dublin will cost over €200 million and developments in Cork University Hospital will cost over €180 million.
