DUP MLA Diane Dodds has accused Belfast Trust of absorbing funds needed for other health projects in Northern Ireland as its leaders faced questions about projected overspends on major hospital schemes.
Dodds raised the concern while officials updated a committee on the trust’s finances. Stormont has yet to agree a 2026/27 budget, and she said a briefing on four schemes gave too little detail about their cost to taxpayers. She argued that spending on the trust’s projects was limiting the money available for work elsewhere, including at Holywell and Craigavon Area Hospital and for a mother and baby unit.
The new Children’s Hospital in Belfast has faced years of delays, rising costs and concerns about its water infrastructure. Completion has shifted from 2020 to the early 2030s. A new Belfast maternity hospital is also years late and substantially over budget, with contamination in its water system causing further delays.
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