New children's hospital seeks contractor to operate 994-space car park

With the hospital now not due to open until late 2024, the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board wants to enter into a contract for the car park that will include 575 paying visitor spaces.

The new billion-euro National Children’s Hospital is seeking a contractor to provide it with a “premium up-front payment” to operate the 994-space car park on the site.

In return for this funding, they will be granted a concession to operate the car park for the first 30 years the hospital is in operation.

This “up-front payment” will include €3m when the contracts are signed, €1m upon confirmation of its placement of an order for the car park’s “access control system” and another €1m when that system is installed and commissioned.

The balance of this concession fee would then have to be paid once the car park comes into operation.

As well operating the car park once finished, the operator awarded the contract will also be required “at its own expense” to fit it out to a detailed specification, including modern online booking and prepayment systems and comprehensive CCTV.

With the hospital now not due to open until late 2024, the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board wants to enter into a contract for the car park that will include 575 paying visitor spaces.

The contractor will receive all of the income from these spaces.

A further 100 spaces will be set aside for Children’s Health Ireland social care guests and a further 319 will be staff parking.

The car park is also expected to include 350 bicycle parking spaces and 26 motorbike parking spaces.

The maximum charge for parking for a 24-hour period would be €10 initially, and this would be imposed by ministerial order and linked to the CSO’s Consumer Price Index.

The hourly rate of parking at the hospital will be specified “in due course”, documents said.

The eTenders website lists an estimated value for the tender of €135m. The National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) was asked for comment and no response was received at the time of publication.