National Maternity Hospital costs approaching €150m before construction begins 

Secretary general of the Department of Health Robert Watt said that roughly €147m has been spent on the project to date when Vat is included, including €38.2m on specific enabling works. Picture: Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie

Costs at the National Maternity Hospital have soared to nearly €150m before construction has even begun, in a process described as being inspired by “direct learning from the National Children’s Hospital”.

The Department of Health said that “significant enabling works are required for a project of this scale”, in reference to the ambitious €2bn hospital build at the St Vincent’s campus in south Dublin.

In an update for the Public Accounts Committee, secretary general of the Department of Health Robert Watt said that roughly €147m has been spent on the project to date when Vat is included, including €38.2m on specific enabling works.

A further €36.2m was spent on design team fees, while €22m was paid out for works on a multi-storey car park at the Merrion Road site, Mr Watt said.

The enabling works completed include the construction of a dedicated medical records building at the site, a new kitchen and canteen, a 13-bed neurology ward, and the fitting out of a new dermatology facility, the secretary general said. 

The construction of those new buildings away from the new hospital site will allow for the “decant” of those services away from the new hospital, according to Mr Watt.

The new hospital, set to replace the existing facility at Holles Street in the city centre and which has faced a great deal of controversy in the past due to concerns over its ownership structure, is expected to cost in the region of €2bn when completed.

Mr Watt said it is “important not to pre-empt the cost at which the market determines it can build this hospital for” due to the “commercially sensitive” nature of proceedings. 

A similar approach was taken by the secretary general in the past when discussing the ongoing costs of the National Children’s Hospital, which has faced inflationary hikes of more than €1.5bn in the 10 years since its construction commenced.

He did say, however, that the successful tenderers for the maternity hospital will be expected to enter into a pre-construction services agreement (PCSA), committing to bring both the contractor and the project team together in order to ensure “that all tenderers and suppliers are agreed on a detailed programme of works before they begin”.

That agreement had been inspired as “the application of a direct learning from the National Children's Hospital Ireland project”, Mr Watt said, which has been mired in acrimony and legal strife between the State agency managing it — the National Paediatric Health Development Board — and its principal contractor, Dutch construction giant BAM.

“The PCSA will enable more effective monitoring of works. It will also enable successful tenderers to begin mobilising their supply chains,” he said, adding that prospective costs are “strictly outside the scope” of the agreement.

As to dates for when construction, and completion, of the project may be achieved, Mr Watt said that no such forecasts will be made until the PCSA has been sufficiently advanced in order that the Government can be provided with “a more robust schedule and timeframe for completion”.