Campaigners are calling for a complete rethink of the National Children's Hospital project.

The New Children's Hospital Alliance (NCHA) has said the current site at St James's in Dublin is not fit for purpose.

The group is protesting outside Leinster House today, as the board of the National Children's Hospital faces questions before the Public Accounts Committee.

They will be asking how the board allowed the cost of the project to reach €1.7bn.

The government has promised a review of the project by consultants PriceWatehouseCoopers (PWC).

Relocation

NCHA spokesperson Dr Fin Breathnach said the review must include a calculation of the cost of relocating the hospital.

“When their remit is defined by Government, the least they should do is price the costing of stopping the current building of the Children’s hospital on the James’s campus and price the cost of building it on a Greenfield site with a combined maternity hospital,” he said.

Today the PAC will quiz the board of the hospital on how the price was allowed to escalate - making it the most expensive project of its kind in the world.

Board

PAC chair Sean Fleming said the board must take responsibility for the fiasco.

“I think the question we have to ask is do we need the particular people who are managing the project now to continue managing it?” he asked.

“Have they shown by their track record that they are fit to do the job?

“There is no doubt that we need a children’s hospital – but is the existing board going about it the right way?

“That is the question we have to ask.”

Last week, the Health Minister Simon Harris defended his decision to give the project the green light, despite the spiralling cost.

Today’s PAC hearing gets underway at 9am.