Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has said she cannot confirm when the new national children’s hospital will open, criticising the main contractor for repeated delays.
Carroll MacNeill said the hospital will open seven months after BAM delivers the so-called “hot block” – core clinical areas such as critical-care beds and operating theatres – at the appropriate clinical and contractual standards.
In an interview with RTÉ’s Prime Time on Tuesday, the Minister said there was a completion timeline in place, but BAM had missed 19 previous deadlines.
“We do have a timeline. But, you know, is it going to be met? If you’ve experienced something 19 times, do you expect it to be different on the 20th?,” she said.
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When asked if it might be this time next year before the hospital opens to patients, the Minister said: “I don’t want to say, because I want the hot block tomorrow.”
She continued: “We’ll open it when it’s safe, when it’s right. I’m not going to open it at a standard that isn’t clinically appropriate, and I’m not going to open it if it’s not safe for the children to move. And I think they’re pretty reasonable parameters.”
BAM disputed the Minister’s assertion that it had continually missed deadlines.
In a statement to RTÉ, the contractor said: “It is not accurate or constructive to state that BAM has continuously missed completion dates.” BAM said the revised timeline reflected “instructed design changes and additional scope – not a failure of delivery”, pointing to “25,000 design revisions, with new drawings still being issued in 2026″.
The hospital was due for substantial completion on April 30th, but it was confirmed last month that this deadline would not be met.
The contract with BAM was agreed in 2017, but the project has been beset with delays and the estimated cost has ballooned to more than €2.24 billion.
A new national children’s hospital was first proposed in 1993.
When it was put to Carroll MacNeill that “an entire generation of children” have aged out of ever getting access to the hospital, the Minister said she “totally” understood parents’ frustration as she has been the mother of a sick child in hospital.
“All I can say to them is this is the place for the future, and my concentration is not looking at the past because I don’t have time, and it’s not where we’re going to be productive,” she said.
“My concentration, all of my energy, is going into the day that I can get access to the hot block, access to the hospital at the appropriate standards, so that we can fit it out and deliver.”
