National children's hospital: Lack of transparency on costs 'crazy'
Construction of the new national children's hospital taking place in Dublin. File picture
The lack of transparency around costs for the new national children’s hospital is “crazy”, the public accounts committee heard today.
The committee was also told contractor BAM has submitted claims coming to a potential €446m, while some claims relating to time delays were described as “not normal” by the hospital development board.
National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) chief officer David Gunning insisted it is not possible to reveal projected final costs for the hospital.
In 2018 the Government approved a spend of €1.433bn for this project. A number of TDs asked whether €2bn is now a more realistic figure but this was neither confirmed nor denied by the Department of Health representatives at the meeting this morning.
The department's director of health infrastructure, Fiona Prendergast, said: “There is a live contract in place and there is an extremely high likelihood that any discussion on costs, however hypothetical, would prejudice engagement between the parties on the contract and could very likely negatively impact or jeopardise this critical project.”
Responding to comments around the lack of estimates, Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy said: “Do you have any idea how crazy that sounds…. at the heart of the project that has been severely delayed, taxpayers can’t be informed what the maximum cost could be?”
Fianna Fáil TD Cormac Devlin said it is “extremely regrettable and quite frankly very worrying”.
The mooted August 2022 completion date has been delayed by 14 months to late 2024. This includes a four-month add-on caused by the pandemic.
Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy asked why construction had not restarted within seven weeks of restrictions on urgent construction lifting.
Mr Gunning said it took 15 weeks for the contractor to resume work, and this partially related to rehiring workers. He agreed some workers were probably on the pandemic unemployment payment.
NPHDB project director Phelim Devine told Labour TD Sean Sherlock: “It is normal for a contractor to apply for an extension of time if they feel they have that entitlement. We have a different view to that.
Contractors have submitted 906 claims to date, with an associated cost of potentially €446m. Just nine have been settled, coming to €2.9m; a further 631 were assessed by the employer’s representative, but 549 of these were referred on for conciliation talks.
Mr Gunning confirmed to the committee that a moratorium on new claims remains in place until the end of this month.
He told Fine Gael TD Jennifer Carroll MacNeill he hopes this will be extended, as it allows the contractor and developer to focus on the work. He said it is not unusual for claims on such large projects to continue past the construction phase.
Mr Devine said work on the satellite clinic for outpatients and emergency care at Tallaght Hospital is on target for finishing this year. It is trending overbudget at €34.07m he said.
The satellite clinic at Connolly Hospital is already operational. To date, construction costs were €29.31m, but a dispute is pending at the High Court.
NPHDB medical director Dr Emma Curtis told Mr Devlin the impact of the cyberattack on the HSE is being taken into account when planning the digital records system for the new hospital.
Committee chair Brian Stanley noted the committee will visit the construction site on the campus of St James Hospital on Thursday.
