The health minister said he is “laser focused” on having the National Children’s Hospital opened by the end of next year, but said it depends on the building firm committing to their completion date of June 2025.
Stephen Donnelly told the Joint Committee on Health that if contractor Bam hands over the keys to the new hospital at the start of next summer, the development board can begin its six-month commissioning phase.
The hospital was originally scheduled to be completed in 2020 with a budget of €650 million.
The bill has spiralled to be in the region of €2.2 billion, and has been delayed on 14 occasions – four of which occurred within the last year.
Mr Donnelly met senior executives from Bam last week, who he said are “standing over” a completion date of June 2025.
Mr Donnelly described the hospital as an “extraordinary facility”.
Asked when he believes the hospital can open to children, Mr Donnelly said: “I believe we need to keep a very clear focus on next year.
“We have been consistently told by CHI (Children’s Health Ireland) that there is a minimum six-month commissioning phase.
“We are looking to accelerate some of that.
“Nobody can give a precise deadline, but I think we have to be laser focused on the end of next year.
“Now the commissioning team and CHI have very strongly stated previously that a transition in winter is not what is preferred because of the pressures we’re all aware of.
“We need to be led by the clinicians on that. It’s really a clinical view as well as an operational view. However, it is worth noting that there is a very significant increase in staffing in CHI.
“There is a very large number of very dedicated people working day and night to build what looks like it will be the finest children’s hospital in the world.”
The committee was told there will be 100,000 pieces of equipment that have to be brought in to the hospital, as well as 36,000 individual pieces of equipment that have to be connected within the hospital.
It will also involve the integration of three health teams from three different hospitals.
Mr Donnelly said he needs the contractor to complete the finishing “correctly”, and that the number of workers on site has to be doubled.
“There is a massive snagging operation under way, and the level of quality required has not been met yet,” he added.
“Bam is a highly experienced contractor. They complete many capital projects on time for the state, that has not been the case here. They’re more than capable of meeting the quality standards, we need that to happen.
“The second is resourcing. The board’s estimate is that the project is resourced in terms of the number of workers on site at about half of what it should be, and that this is probably the single biggest contributor to the delays.
“Thirdly, there is a management deficit on site, which really would speak to the finishings, scheduling and acceleration.”
He described his meeting with Royal Bam as “respectful and forthright”, adding that there were “frank” exchanges of views between both parties.
Sinn Féin TD David Cullinane probed whether the minister has confidence Bam will meet the June 2025 deadline, and whether there has been a “step change” in bringing in additional resources.
Mr Donnelly said that Royal Bam has stood over a completion date of June next year.
Fiona Ross, chairwoman of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB), said Bam submitted a new programme the night before the meeting.
“There’s now a process under way to evaluate that programme. It’s not deemed compliant yet,” she said.
“We’re at that stage of reviewing the programme that was submitted to us the Wednesday night before the Thursday meeting.”
Mr Donnelly also revealed that Bam had put in an invoice for €25 million for a job which cost only €200,000.
The committee heard that a change was required in relation to air condition grills, which was originally thought to cost €25 million and would delay the project by months.
“It cost less than 1 per cent of that. It cost less than €200,000, and it took a few weeks,” Mr Donnelly said.
“It’s worth saying that mistakenly or not, Bam still issued an invoice to the State for the full €25 million. But maybe that was an administrative error on their part.”
