It will be April or May 2025 before the first patients can be admitted to the new National Children’s Hospital, but only if the contractor BAM “meets its own deadline” of completion by October 29th, 2024, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has said.
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s News at One, Mr Donnelly appealed to the contractor to stick to the deadline.
The estimated cost of the project has now increased to €2.24 billion after the Cabinet approved an additional €512 million in funds for the completion of the hospital on Tuesday.
However, stressing the need for the new hospital, Mr Donnelly said it will be “transformative” when it opens.
The Minister was also adamant that none of the additional money will go towards claims made by BAM for extra funds.
Of the €770 million claim by BAM, €645 million has been adjudicated, and less than 3 per cent awarded, he said, with the remaining €123 million yet to be adjudicated on.
It had been known since 2019 that the cost of the hospital was going to be higher than the original figure, with additional costs identified as the project progressed.
Since then, the combination of the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine has “significant increased building inflation and those costs fall to the State,” the Minister said.
Mr Donnelly acknowledged that the contractor could take further legal action in relation to costs, but as far as the Government is concerned, the additional funding approved by Cabinet was the final cost.
Frustration
The delays and escalating cost of the hospital had been “very frustrating for the Government”, Mr Donnelly said, adding the matter had also been frustrating for the previous government.
“This is an expensive hospital, it is an expensive design, it is on an expensive size. It is not the most expensive hospital in the world, but there is a lot of money that Irish people are paying.
“What I would say is, if there is a silver lining to that, is we are getting a huge amount in return for that money in terms of children's health care. This is going to be transformative,” Mr Donnelly said.
The completion date submitted by the contractor would only be met “if the contractor fully resources this project,” he cautioned.
“And you'll be aware of the board's comments previously that the contractor had not, in their opinion, fully resourced this project. I have a call directly to the contractor, and we want to get children treated in this hospital.
“It is literally night and day in terms of the future of children's health care.”
Timeline
Asked when the first child would be treated in the new hospital, Mr Donnelly replied: “If BAM meets its own schedule, I would implore BAM to fully resource this and do this, and that would be the end of October, there's then a six-month commissioning phase.”
Mr Donnelly said he took no comfort in having to appeal to the contractor to meet the deadline.
The additional funds approved by Cabinet on Tuesday was partly from the Department of Health’s capital budget, he explained, but added that it would not mean that other projects will not go ahead, as contingency plans had been made for this funding.
“There are no projects that won't go ahead,” the Minister reiterated.
“In advance of anticipation of this, the annual health budget for capital has gone well up by several hundred million a year. So it has been anticipated that this kind of an amount would be required.
“So there are that, not only are there projects not being affected by this. We're being more ambitious in terms of primary care centres as surgical hubs, more community beds, more acute beds this year.”
