Construction company Bam has said completion dates for the long-delayed new national children’s hospital will “continue to evolve” until the design is fully finalised.
The builder maintained “highly selective data” was being used about the current state of the project which was both misleading and failed to show the full picture.
Bam described issues raised about work on the hospital by the State board charged with the delivery of the €2 billion facility as “the normal snagging and commissioning phase required on projects of such scale and complexity”.
Bam made its comments in advance of a hearing of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee on Thursday which is to consider the planned new hospital.
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The National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB), which is in charge of the design and delivery of the facility, will tell the committee that Bam had not provided an updated substantial completion date for the new hospital, which received planning permission a decade ago.
The NPHDB is expected to highlight dust in ventilation ducts as “one of the main issues” causing difficulties at present.
It is also expected to maintain that there were “an unprecedented 106,500 defects in the 5,728 rooms in the hospital” which Bam had to address.
[ An 18th national children’s hospital completion deadline passes without fanfareOpens in new window ]
NPHDB chief officer David Gunning is expected to tell the committee that on 19 occasions Bam has changed its own substantial completion date.
In a statement on Wednesday evening, Bam said it was “a tier-one international contractor with a strong track record of successfully delivering major hospital projects across Ireland and beyond”.
It claimed that “highly selective data is being used, which is both misleading and fails to show the full picture. For example, of the 5,728 areas/rooms in this hospital, it has been reported that just 3,185 have been completed, ignoring the fact that an addition 1,219 have been offered to the client and are awaiting review.”
BAM said it was tied into an ongoing contractual process dealing with design change, extensions of time, contract administration and the final value of the project.
“Until the design is fully finalised, completion dates will continue to evolve.
“Through the contract’s dispute resolution process, the conciliator has already recommended Bam over €140 million, along with time extensions of over 300 days. Due to client-instructed design changes, in addition to this, an increase of €53 million has been agreed as provisional sums for Bam.”
