Tánaiste Micheál Martin has said there is no question there have been “tensions” between the board of the new national children’s hospital (NCH) and the contractor BAM which has created “real difficulty”.
Mr Martin said despite “painful” and “unsatisfactory” completion timeframes in relation to the hospital, “we need to stick with the process”.
Speaking during Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil on Thursday, the Tánaiste said the board and the contractor both have responsibilities.
Mr Martin was responding to Sinn Féin’s health spokesman David Cullinane, who said he had “no confidence” the hospital would be ready and treating patients by next year.
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“I think it’s a certainty it will be 2025 and God knows when in that year,” Mr Cullinane said.
The Waterford TD said the board and contractor were now “openly at war, and all the while the costs are rising”.
“This is in nobody’s interest,” he said. “It does nothing to help the children who need this hospital built. It is unseemly, it is unprofessional and it does not inspire confidence that this Government can deliver this project on time and in cost.”
Mr Cullinane said the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly needed to “get off the sidelines and show leadership” and ensure that the board and BAM are “doing everything possible to make sure that his project comes in on time”.
“We cannot simply continue to write cheques with no guarantees,” he added.
A definitive completion date for the new national children’s hospital is expected to be contained in a report from contractor BAM next week, following ongoing delays and cost overruns, the Oireachtas Health Committee heard on Wednesday.
David Gunning, head of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board which oversees the project, said the delivery of the “contract compliant programme” was critical, and described its delay as “unacceptable”.
To date, expenditure on the NCH has reached €1.325 billion, of an authorised capital spend stretching to €1.433 billion. BAM has submitted approximately €750 million in cost claims which threatens to escalate the cost to almost €2.2 billion.
Mr Martin said there had been tensions, “there is no question about that, there has been a real difficulty here and perhaps one wouldn’t have started out again if you were starting to build a new hospital”.
He said claims had come in from the contractor which have been “challenged every step of the way”. Mr Martin said the State had to “stick with the process” and not create leverage for “anybody to see weaknesses on the State’s side”.
“We have to be hard, fair, we want the hospital completed but if claims are being made that are not sustainable then they have to be tested, that means arbitration and mediation and that is slow,” he added.
