LAST UPDATE | 22 May

THE EARLIEST DATE the new National Children’s Hospital will now be open to patients is June 2026, the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has been told. 

The date was provided to the committee this morning by the chief executive of Children’s Health Ireland (CHI), Lucy Nugent, who said there is a nine-month commissioning period once the building of the hospital is complete. 

Yesterday, it was confirmed that the hospital’s new competition date has been delayed by a further three months to September 2025. 

This delay is the fifteenth time in over four years that a promised completion date has not been met.

Given this delay, Nugent was today asked by PAC chair TD John Brady what the best and worst case scenario is for the hospital to open. 

“We have a nine-month commissioning period. So the best optimum date would be the end of June 2026,” she said. 

Asked if he has confidence that the contractor building the hospital, BAM, will meet the new September completion date, David Gunning, the chief officer of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) said it was too early to say. 

“I’ve got one date, one data point, no supporting information,” Gunning told PAC, explaining that he only received the updated programme of completion from BAM at five past 12 yesterday. 

Asked by a TD if he has faith in BAM at the moment, Gunning responded: “No.” 

“This is our 15th new timeline, and as I’ve already commented, we haven’t yet had the opportunity to forensically review the program that was provided last night. We will take some time to do that. But at the moment, I can’t say on yesterday’s programme Deputy, on what the position is.” 

Claims and time delays responsible for cost overrun

The delays with the hospital are what is causing the cost overrun, Gunning told PAC.

This contradicts the view of BAM, which maintains that the delays are being caused by design changes.

He said 3,277 additional cost claims have been received from BAM, worth €856m, and that these are at various stages of being assessed.

Gunning said the initial total contract value for the hospital was €910m, and on top of this €50.5m of costs have crystallised. 

“That’s the current liabilities on the project, and in relation to the escalation, to me, the vast amount of any increase is due to extension of time,” he said.

On top of this, there are 2,200 cost claims at various stages of a dispute process, Gunning said. 

“We can’t give certainty on those, but we are fighting every one of those,” he said. 

“And then there have been payments of inflation that I’ve mentioned, €50 million [euro] on top of that has also been paid under the contract to the contractor.”

At the end of 2018, the Government signed off on a contract cost of €1.43bn, Gunning said today that this currently sits at €1.88bn.

He said he is confident that the final cost of the hospital can be delivered “within that scope”.

PAC also heard today that there has been a 30% decrease in staff working on the site to complete the hospital since January this year. 

Controversy over children’s hip surgeries

Lucy Nugent, chair of Children’s Health Ireland, was also quizzed on the controversy surrounding hip surgeries carried out on children since 2010. 

A HSE-commissioned report into the issue is expected to be received by CHI and the Government this week, with Nugent telling PAC today she expects it “imminently”.

Earlier this month, information was published revealing that 2,200 letters have been sent to parents of children who underwent hip dysplasia surgery, offering them routine follow-up appointments. 

A total of 1,757 letters were sent by CHI to parents of children who had the surgery at Temple Street and Crumlin hospitals.

BAM’s response 

In a statement this afternoon BAM said it was disappointed “that the NPHDB has again not presented the Public Accounts Committee with a comprehensive set of facts which acknowledges that the scale and number of design changes issued throughout this project have had a direct impact on the completion date.”

The contractor said that following a meeting with then Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly in early October 2024 that substantial completion of the hospital could be delivered by June 2025 if no further design changes were made. 

“In the seven months since that meeting, in the region of 70 significant change orders, each of which can include multiple design changes, have been issued to BAM. This has inevitably delayed substantial completion,” it said. 

It added that the project has “always been fully resourced by BAM according to the original work programme and is currently resourced at approximately 50% above the level that was anticipated for this late stage given the design changes that have occurred”.