National Children’s Hospital faces further delays as BAM yet to give completion date

Project board says staffing shortfalls and unresolved defects continue to delay completion, with no updated timeline yet provided

A construction worker at the construction site of the new National Children's Hospital in Dublin. File picture: PA

It will be several months until construction works are complete at the National Children’s Hospital, with developer BAM yet to provide an updated completion date.

David Gunning, chief officer of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB), has accused BAM of failing to properly resource the building of the hospital.

“This is entirely a resourcing problem, just not resourcing it sufficiently to deliver to the timeline,” Mr Gunning said, appearing before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

He said this also extended to BAM not “managing the resources on the ground sufficiently” to meet the previous completion date.

The project has suffered significant delays and cost overruns, with the original completion date set for December 2022.

Mr Gunning said that while BAM is yet to confirm a new completion date, the company has indicated to the employer’s representative that it would deliver an updated work programme on Friday.

After this work programme is provided, the NPHDB will review it for compliance and update PAC members on a new completion date.

Mr Gunning said the NPHDB had previously agreed to provide a further €20m to BAM as “cash flow funding” on the condition that the contractor increase staffing levels on site.

This was done outside the normal contract procedures, with the NPHDB withdrawing the funding after further resources were not provided, Mr Gunning said.

Asked by Social Democrats TD Aidan Farrelly if there were further legal mechanisms to force BAM to increase staffing on the site, Mr Gunning said there was “no lever” the NPHDB could pull.

The committee heard that there are still a significant number of defects (snags) to be resolved, with 12,414 defects remaining.

These include, as reported by the Irish Examiner, 200 rooms that require refitting due to leaks within the underfloor heating system and other pipework.

A total of 4,313 rooms have been offered by BAM at the completion standard to the NPHDB, with 3,159 having been validated by the hospital’s design team.

BAM has repeatedly said the NPHDB issued design changes. This was rejected by the board on Thursday, which said no changes have been made in 2026.

Meanwhile, Phelim Devine, project director at the NPHDB, said a fire at the site was caused by an aerosol can exploding after coming into contact with a heat gun.

The fire occurred last week, with staff on site evacuated.

Mr Devine said the fire itself would not lead to a further delay, with walls and part of the ceiling required to be replaced.

Mr Gunning confirmed there have been 3,165 claims adjudicated by the employer’s representative, which acts as an independent administrator for the contract.

These claims are worth €819m, with €52m being awarded in BAM’s favour by the employer’s representative.

Mr Gunning said the level of claims from BAM for delays amounted to 11 years of time extensions on the project, compared to the actual delay of 40 months.

“So there’s very significant over claiming of the time,” Mr Gunning said.

“In the dispute settlement, if BAM is entitled to money for delay, they can only get paid once for a delay. You can’t get paid multiple times for the same days.”

Mr Gunning confirmed the NPHDB had spent €5.3m on legal fees since the board was set up in 2014.