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Fianna Fáil's health spokeswoman accused the National Council for the Development of Pediatric Hospitals of a "total and catastrophic failure" of the cost of the new children's hospital.
The board of directors is appearing before the Oireachtas Health Committee about the high cost of the new 1.4 billion euro national children's hospital on the site of St James Hospital in Dublin.
The commission has learned that the cost is 450 million euros higher than the figure of 983 million euros approved by the government in 2017.
Stephen Donnelly has estimated that the probable overspending of hospital spending would be between 1 and 1.5 billion euros. He also said that the cost would be twice as high as anywhere in the world.
The development committee informed the committee that there would be 470 hospital beds.
However, Mr Donnelly said it was clear that the hospital would not have additional beds as compared to existing children's hospitals.
Dr. Michael Harty, chair of the committee, asked the chairman of the development council, Tom Costello, why the overrun was not planned.
Dr. Harty said that excessive spending would impact all capital projects in the health services.
He asked why the cost would exceed the international average and that it would be one of the most expensive hospitals in the world.
Mr. Costello said that inflation had an impact, but that the cost of the project was now badured.
He said it would be built at the lowest cost, and was the fastest.
Mr. Costello also stated that because of the two-step bidding process, the complexity of the project was not fully recognized.
He gave the example of 5,000 km of necessary cables.
The development commission got the price of the cables but did not know how many would need them at first, Costello said.
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