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CONSTRUCTION FIRM BAM is taking legal action against the board of the National Children’s Hospital.
The case was filed yesterday in the High Court by A&L Goodbody, who are acting for BAM.
The exact details of the court case are not yet public and A&L Goodbody did not respond to a request for comment.
The case is due to be heard in the High Court on 26 January.
It’s the latest in the saga between the firm and the hospital, which has been delayed by years.
Last year alone, the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) spent more than €6 million on legal fees, litigation and defending claims, the Irish Times reported.
The hospital was originally scheduled to be completed in 2020 with a budget of €650 million. The bill has spiralled, and the hospital has been delayed on 15 occasions.
BAM, the builders, have come under fire repeatedly over the massively inflating cost of constructing the hospital and the many delays.
The latest estimated completion date was in November, which has passed.
In the summer, BAM claimed that large sections of the hospital had been completed and offered for early access.
Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill called the assertion “not credible”.
She said that, according to the NPHDB, many of the rooms BAM has put forward to the government for early access still had outstanding snags.
Carroll MacNeill claimed in August that only about 800 rooms (less than 15% of the hospital’s more than 5,800 rooms) were satisfactory.
These were “chequerboarded” throughout floors and areas of the hospital, rather than in complete zones, she said.
The minister said that there is €10 million available to BAM from the board each month to be drawn down to pay for materials, contractors, and subcontractors to deliver the hospital.
Consistently, BAM does not avail of even half of this funding, she said.
The minister said that she would much prefer that BAM availed of the total amount of funding each month and completed the hospital.
A spokesperson for BAM said the firm was disappointed to hear Carroll MacNeill’s remarks, which the company said “indicate she has only received partial information” in relation to the current status of the project.
In response to the issue of the drawdown charges, BAM said that there have been 84 new and revised design changes to the build from the development board, despite an agreement with previous Health Minister Stephen Donnelly that there would be no further design changes.
The majority of the remaining work on the hospital relates to these changes, for which BAM has also not received payment, the company stated.
The firm has also been awarded a number of other government tenders despite its part in the dysfunctional build of the new children’s hospital.
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