The new National Children’s Hospital (NCH) will not fully open until 2027, Labour Party TD Alan Kelly has predicted.
His remarks come after briefing material for new Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill indicated the hospital may not open until 2026.
The project has long been beset by delays and spiralling costs.
June of this year is still the expected construction completion date, but a subsequent “operational commissioning” phase will take at least six months, according to the briefing for Ms Carroll MacNeill.
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The document says migration to the new hospital cannot be undertaken in winter due to “clinical risks”, which suggests it may not be fully open to patients until next year.
Mr Kelly was a member of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee that scrutinised the project.
He said he was correct in his previous prediction that the cost of the project would top €2 billion and that it did not “have a snowball’s chance” of opening this year.
“I doubt very much that this hospital will be fully opened until 2027 the way things are going,” he added.
Opening a hospital is “not just about the bricks and mortar”, he said. Recruitment, working conditions and other processes take a “considerable amount of time”, he said.
He criticised the handling of the project and predicted further costs rises.
The briefing for the new Minister puts the total approved budget for the capital project at about €2.24 billion. This figure includes an Electronic Health Record system, ICT infrastructure, integration of the three existing hospitals, operational commissioning and opening.
The document outlines that about €1.8 billion of this is for the capital construction projects, with €360 million for the integration and commissioning programme, and ICT/Electronic Health Record costs.
Separately, Tánaiste Simon Harris responded to a report in the Irish Independent that the builder of the National Children’s Hospital is now seeking some €853 million in extra costs.
Mr Harris said: “The developer can look for whatever the developer wants but the State is going to continue to robustly push back”.
On the projected opening time, Mr Harris said: “The plan is still to have this hospital handed over to the State in June of this year.”
He said there will “course be a commissioning period of time then".
“That needs to happen as efficiently as possible but we’re now within touching distance of this National Children’s Hospital finally being available for the children of this country,” he said.
