The board overseeing the development of the national children’s hospital has spent €672,000 on public relations services in less than three years.
The spending by the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) came as the project is dealing with successive delays and spiralling cost overruns.
Details of the expenditure with communications agency Q4PR were provided to Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy after she tabled a parliamentary question.
Just more than €672,000 was spent by the board on “community, internal and external stakeholder engagement and media relations communications services” from Q4PR between 2022 and this September. This comprises €250,352 in 2022; €211,328 in 2023; and €210,355 up to September 2024, net of VAT.
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“If the children’s hospital was finished on time, much of this expense would have been avoided,” Ms Murphy said. “The best PR for this hospital will be to get it finished and treating sick children.”
Planning permission for the hospital at the St James’s campus was granted in 2016. At the time, the estimated cost was €700 million and there was an expectation it would be built by 2020.
David Gunning, chief officer of the NPHDB, last month told the Oireachtas Committee on Health that construction of the hospital was 94 per cent complete. The most recent substantial completion date provided by the main contractor BAM is June 2025, which Mr Gunning said “will facilitate 2026 opening”. However, he also expressed caution about that timeline.
Earlier this year, it was revealed the cost of the hospital has increased by more than €500 million, bringing the total sum expected to be spent on the NCH, its two satellite centres, and transitioning of services to the main building at the St James’s campus, to €2.2 billion.
There has been disputes between the NPHDB and BAM with claims and counter claims over the blame for delays and cost escalations.
In its response to Ms Murphy’s parliamentary question on external communications advice, the NPHDB said the hospital “is the most complex construction project under way in Ireland and represents the State’s biggest single investment in healthcare”.
It said: “Communicating with all stakeholders throughout the planning and now the construction phase is essential. This communication not only takes place through media relations and social media but also through site visits, events and engagement sessions.”
The NPHDB added: “Key stakeholders with whom the NPHDB must engage with on an ongoing basis include but are not limited to: local and national representatives, Oireachtas committees, Department of Health and HSE officials, Children’s Health Ireland, the Resident Project Monitoring Committee, and local community organisations and businesses.”
It said a competitive public tendering process was run by the NPHDB for communication consultancy services in 2021 and Q4PR was the successful tenderer.
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