Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has insisted he is “laser-focused” on opening the new National Children’s Hospital by the end of 2025, but admitted the Government will not be spending any more money on the project.
Mr Donnelly told the Oireachtas Health Committee that he had deliberately delayed intervening with the parent company of BAM, the contractor for the hospital which is now several years and hundreds of millions of euro over schedule, in order not to “cut the legs out” from under the project’s administrative body, the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB).
The minister recently held a meeting with the chief executive of Royal BAM, the contractor’s Dutch parent, at which the senior company committed to a final completion of the project by next June.
That date has been called into serious question in recent weeks, not least via the claim by the NPHDB that the project has been understaffed, and needs double the number of workers in place in order for construction to finish on time.
Chair of the NPHDB, Fiona Ross, told the committee on Wednesday said she is “hoping” the difference in speeding up the €2.2bn project will be made by the meeting with Royal BAM and the pressure that may bring to bear on the contractor.
“You’re hoping at this stage?” Roisin Shortall asked of Ms Ross, to which the reply was “yes”.
“It was a very substantive meeting from our side,” she said, noting the frustration on the State’s part at the constant delays to the project.
“I know you’d say hope, but we have to be optimistic,” she said.
She added that the delays being seen “are on the contractor”, to which Ms Shortall replied “it’s not, it’s on the development board and the Government”.
Ms Shortall said:
The minister disputed this, however, insisting that the “final cost is €2.2bn”.
“We have been very clear with BAM that the Government is not putting more money on the table,” he said.
Ms Shortall replied that if the number of staff on site is to double then it’s “hard to see how that doesn’t have cost implications”.
“We’ve made it very clear that’s the end of the funding. With regard to the number of staff, we’d refute the position that says they get paid more if they fully staff the site,” Mr Donnelly said.
Put to him that, given the commissioning of the hospital following its completion is broadly forecast to take at least six months, the hospital is unlikely to open to the public before 2026, the minister replied that his department is “looking to accelerate” that phase.
“I think we have to be laser-focused on the end of next year,” he said, though conceding that a transition to the new hospital “in winter isn’t preferred”.
Pressed as to why he had only intervened with Royal BAM some seven years into the project build, the minister said: “You have to be careful as a minister when intervening, as the contractor may think we no longer have to deal with the board, we now have access directly to Government.
“What you can end up doing in trying to help actually is simply cutting the legs out from under your own people.”
He agreed however that the NPHDB is fully of the view that “any attempt at partnership (with BAM) has run its course”.
