Chair of development board 'hoping' contractors meeting will speed up children's hospital

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has insisted he is 'laser-focused' on opening the new National Children’s Hospital by the end of 2025. Photo: Leah Farrell / © RollingNews.ie

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has insisted he is “laser-focused” on opening the new National Children’s Hospital by the end of 2025, but admitted the Government will not be spending any more money on the project.

Mr Donnelly told the Oireachtas Health Committee that he had deliberately delayed intervening with the parent company of BAM, the contractor for the hospital which is now several years and hundreds of millions of euro over schedule, in order not to "cut the legs out" from under the project’s administrative body, the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB).