The National Paediatric Hospital Development Board, the body overseeing the new national children’s hospital, appeared before the Oireachtas health committee on Wednesday morning.
The latest expected substantial completion date for the project is now June 2025, though the chief officer of the board David Gunning could not give “assurances” that date wouldn’t be pushed out further.
Today, Mr Gunning said he feels the “hospital is the hostage in this negotiation” and that the contractor will only complete the hospital if more money from the public purse is provided.
In recent days, there have been further developments in the row between the body and Bam, the developer, over construction of the new hospital, which has been hit by successive delays and spiralling cost overruns.
The developer Bam has blamed the delays on “design changes”, which the NPHDB have rejected as being the cause.
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- Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has criticised the board of Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) for delays in seeking a new permanent chief executive of the hospital.
- Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald told the Dáil on Tuesday that the National Children’s Hospital “fiasco” is rooted in Government incompetence.
- The board overseeing the development of the national children’s hospital (NCH) intends to seek damages from construction firm BAM with a claim which could run to more than €20 million over delays in the completion of the project.
The meeting has now concluded.
Asked again about opening, David Gunning, chief officer of the board, said Bam has told them substantial completion will be June 2025, “which will facilitate 2026 opening”.
“I really don’t want to contemplate going beyond that,” he said.
The hospital is now 40 per cent through technical commissioning, and is about six months into the process, according to Phelim Devine, project director.
Mr Devine said that will not delay the opening of the hospital.
David Cullinane, Sinn Féin’s health spokesman, is critical of the delays, stating “there is political accountability as well”.
“Every day, becomes a month, becomes a year. I’m not convinced that this strategy of having endless rows with the contractor is working. It’s clearly not,” he said.
David Gunning, chief officer of the board, said there has been “considerable engagement” with the contractor with regard to alternative dispute resolution mechanisms.
Mr Gunning said the objectives going into that was to get a certainty on time and certainty on cost, and they have “been through a process for several months”.
“We had no successful conclusion to that process. We do not have confidence in what the contractor is telling us,” he said.
On the June 2025 completion date, David Gunning, chief officer, said: “I would be very reluctant to give the committee any assurance or confidence in the June 2025 timeline, in the absence of the information that we need to look in detail and do a critical analysis. "
Underpinning that, is what are the resources the contractor is going to employ during this period, he said.
The meeting has resumed.
Seán Crowe, chairman of the Oireachtas health committee, said among the public and politicians, the perception of the project is that “it’s a bit of a mess”.
He said: “There are two questions people will ask: when will it open, and there’s no certainty around that. And how much will it cost, and there is no certainty around that.”
Mr Crowe said “one of the weaknesses” was a contract was agreed “based on a design that wasn’t finished”.
In response, Mr Gunning said it was “never the intention” design would be completed before building started because it would be “impossible to do that” due to the degree of design that rests on the contractors and sub contractors.
The Oireachtas committee has taken a short break, before it resumes questioning.
There is no compliant programme in place between Bam and the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board, Phelim Devine, the project director Phelim Devine has said.
According to the board, a baseline programme is a “critical contractual requirement, fundamental to any construction project”, because it provides a clear approach and timeline for works underway up to substantial completion.
“The absence of a baseline programme on any construction project, especially one of the scale of the new children’s hospital is completely unacceptable,” the board said.
The National Paediatric Hospital Development Board has paid €48 million to the contractor in inflation “over and above” the initial contract price, the body’s chief officer has said.
According to David Gunning, chief officer of the NPDHB,there are currently four cases in the High Court.
Three are in the very early stages, he said, and one is a “significant case moving through the High Court currently”.
They do not have to be resolved before the hospital is handed over, he said.
Asked what is left to complete within the hospital, Phelim Devine, project director, said there are two main components left.
The first is bringing rooms up to completion standards.
“None of them are signed off. They’re very advanced but not complete in accordance to the contract,” he said, though said there has been progress in this regard in recent weeks.
Design teams are currently inspecting 72 rooms that have been re-offered as being completed. He said he expects there will be hundreds per week offered to design team.
The final stage, he said, is technical commission. “And then you’re at substantial completion,” he said.
Mr Devine said that they need to increase resource in order to meet the June date.
In terms of claims, David Gunning, chief executive of the board, said the Bam-claimed value of these is €748 million.
He said 18 claims make up 80 per cent of that figure. However, not all of those claims have gone through the conciliation process yet.
While Bam has claimed this value - to date, the net change to the overall contract sum - as determined by the Employer’s Representative (ER), agreed in conciliation and subject to an adjudication decision - is approximately €35 million, excluding inflation.
“There’s a process and there’s a backlog just because of the volume on these things,” Mr Gunning said.
“This is a process run by the standing conciliator. How long will that take? We don’t control the process.”
Róisín Shortall, Social Democrats TD, asked how many design changes there have been since the start of the project.
There have 469 change orders issued on the project since January 2019, there have also been more than 23,000 drawings, Phelim Devine, project manager, said.
David Gunning, chief officer of the board, said he feels the “hospital is the hostage in this negotiation” and that the contractor will only complete the hospital if more money from the public purse is provided.
Asked if he had evidence, he said; “I’ve been five years trying to get a completion date, I think that’s evidence enough”.
In a statement in recent days, Bam rejected claims it was trying to extract “as much money from the Irish taxpayer as possible”, describing the allegations as “misleading, ill-informed and incorrect”.
“These claims have absolutely no basis in fact, nor are they helpful to ensuring this complex and vital project is completed at the earliest possible juncture,” the statement said.
Bam has attributed the delays to design changes, which Mr Gunning robustly disagreed with on Wednesday.
“We are not getting the Bam A-game on this project. We do not agree that design change is the cause of delays in this project,” he said.
“Design is not holding up the project at the moment. These rooms are practically finished.”
Sinn Féin’s David Cullinane said he is “sick” 14 completion dates have come and gone, describing it as “Groundhog day”.
In his opening statement, Mr Gunning said “Bam continues to submit large volumes of claims, including duplication and triplication of claimed time and value”.
Mr Gunning said: “Our message to the contractor is twofold: When are we getting our hospital, and not one penny more.”
However, Mr Cullinane said “nobody can say with certainty there will be no additional costs” due to these claims.
With regard to rooms the contractor has said are completed, Mr Gunning told politicians that not a single room has been completed to required standards.
Phelim Devine, project director, said the rooms the design teams have been offered, the design teams have gone into those rooms and “inspected more than 500 of them”.
“We are averaging about 13 to 15 defects per room, on average. These aren’t scuffs of paints. These are compliance issues. It is remarkable that we have these rooms offered as complete when in fact they are not complete,” he said.
Fine Gael Senator Martin Conway asked Mr Gunning if a request for additional funding will be made to Government in light of “significant” claims made by Bam.
In February 2024, the Government approved enhanced capital and current budget sanctions bringing the total approved capital budget to €1.88 billion for the NPHDB component of this important projec
Mr Gunning said he is “confident” the €1.88 billion will be “sufficient” to complete the project. They are 94 per cent complete on the building of the hospital, he said, adding: “we are working at the finish”.
Asked if there are assurances there won’t be any further delays, Mr Gunning said he hopes his “frustration” is coming across.
“We are sick of it. We have been dealing with this day in and day out. I would not give any assurance of bankability on the June 2025 date,” he said.
Mr Gunning said when the completion date was moved from March to June 2025, it was an “extremely disappointing” day, with the delay meaning it is “essentially” a 2026 hospital opening.
David Gunning, chief officer of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB), has begun to read out his opening statement.
Construction of the NCH is “approaching the final stages”, he said, but said the approach by Bam is “unacceptable”
“It is clear to the NPHDB that the biggest factors contributing to the continued delay to completion are: Bam’s continued insistence on offering rooms and areas within the hospital as complete when they are still incomplete; Bam’s continued failure to manage the project execution; and Bam’s continued unwillingness to resource the project appropriately”.
