Sinn Féin has claimed the development of Ireland's national children's hospital will be the "most expensive children's hospital to be built anywhere in the world".

Deputy Leader Mary Lou McDonald TD made the statement after she challenged Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald in relation to the out of control costs of building the hospital.

She criticised the evasive responses received from Tánaiste as further evidence of the government's "neglect" of the health service.

She said: "This morning parents read with horror the fact that the situation has spun far out of control. The current estimated cost has ballooned from an initial €404 million in 2012 to a mind-boggling figure of over €1 billion today.

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"This infuriating saga is now a sorry tale of bungles, incompetence and broken promises stretching across two decades.

"In that time, we have seen both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael led governments make big announcements to the Irish people, but those same governments have delivered very little.

"Twenty-four years after the idea was first proposed in 1993, the national children’s hospital is still a project wrapped up in uncertainty and chaos.

"How can we expect anything else from a government whose entire approach to healthcare is based on fostering crisis, havoc, and confusion?

"The abject failure to get a handle on the astronomical costs of the children's hospital, and allay the fears of parents, is proof positive that Fine Gael and this government is utterly bereft of leaders."

(CD/LM)