Tipperary TD criticises Minister for Justice and casts doubt on Children's Hospital progress

Tipperary's Labour party TD Alan Kelly spoke to the media in front of Leinster House on Tuesday morning where he criticised both the progress on the new National Children's Hospital (NCH) as well as progress being made by Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan in addressing crime in the country.

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National Children's Hospital

After briefing materials provided to Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill revealed that the new NCH won't be open until 2026, Kelly has gone one step further and predicted that the hospital will not open until 2027.

Ms Carroll MacNeil has said that the hospital project, which has been criticised en masse for it's significant costs and lengthy delays, is still expected to be complete this year but that an "operational commissioning" phase will take at least six months to complete after that.

Kelly said "I doubt very much that this hospital will be fully opened until 2027 the way things are going."

Justice Minister

Speaking about the justice system in the country, Kelly said "the concerns that people have about the safety in our streets and in our towns and villages across the country are now at a level which probably hasn't been seen for a long time, and I respect that there's a new Minister for Justice but I don't respect the fact that he's part of a Government that's been in place for a decade. 

"In fairness to Jim O'Callaghan who I've had conversations with, he needs to stop being a commentator and he needs to analyze why there's such knife crime here in Dublin and why we have such safety issues across the country.

"Why wasn't there a Gardaí on the street in Grafton street, why aren't there Gardaí on the streets across the city centre of Dublin all the time.

"He keeps talking about how he spoke with the commissioner. He keeps saying that carrying knives is illegal and shouldn't happen and it's a crime but what's he doing about it? What has his Government done about it? And what did the previous Ministers for Justice including the current Tanaiste, current Minister for Education and Charlie Flanagan, what did they all do about this before him? 

"Why are Garda numbers plummeting? I respect the fact that there's a campaign underway to get more Gardaí to join, but I know of many instances of young people who refuse to join An Garda Síochána, because the pay conditions, the working conditions, the pension. And actually another issue is very stark too, as the GRA members will tell you, from the fact that they haven't brought the commissioner to their conference again this year, which you know I can understand. Has the commissioner, have senior Gardaí got their backs? Because we know that the morale of An Garda Síochána as the lowest it's been in the history of the state. 

"We have a crisis in An Garda Siochána that has never been seen before, so what new plans is the Minister for Justice going to bring forward?"