A fresh focus on the long-running dispute over the children’s hospital has emerged after Health Minister Stephen Donnelly sent a letter to the Taoiseach and senior ministers on Friday to outline concerns.
Mr Donnelly accused the main contractor BAM of “holding the state to ransom” and wanting to extract “as much money from the taxpayer as possible” – which the company strongly rejected and called an “irresponsible” claim.
After a €500m top-up was sanctioned by the Cabinet in February, the total funds allocated to the project is at €2.2bn; the Government has insisted that no further budget increases would be sanctioned.
The hospital – which when completed could be the most expensive hospital in the world – has missed more than a dozen timelines to date.
The latest timeline was for the site at St James’s Hospital to be completed by October 29 this year, with commissioning likely taking another six months.
Mr Donnelly has indicated to government colleagues that this timeline has been pushed back once again, as the major row deepens between the main contractor and the Irish Government over the “state-of-the-art” project.
The national children’s hospital site. Photo: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin.
Speaking in New York today, Simon Harris said: “I think it’s absolutely right and proper that the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board is standing up for the taxpayer.
!We’re making it very clear penalties are being applied in the contract and in addition to that, we will contest any claims that come in that are inappropriate.
Mr Harris said he is “taking very seriously” a suggestion by Health Minister Stephen Donnelly that EU procurement rules need to be examined.
“I certainly leave open the option of raising issues around procurement and around how States use procurements at an EU level as well. We’re totally serious about that,” he said.
“I think we need to make sure that EU procurement rules can allow past performance to be factored into the awarding of public contacts in future,” he added.
Earlier ,Tánaiste Micheál Martin said the Government must “protect the taxpayer” when it comes to the cost of the National Children’s Hospital.
“My objective is that we need a hospital as quickly as we can for the children of Ireland. I would say to BAM in particular to get on with it,” he said.
“I mean, there have been different personnel on the board over different periods of time and all of them, irrespective of the fact that they’re different people, have reached the same consistent conclusion: that BAM are not putting their full weight behind getting this hospital complete.
“There is this endless claim and counterclaim process which has taken an inordinate length of time as well.
“It’s not good, but my view is that we have to stick with it, and protect the taxpayer as well, and not in any way lose our focus on making sure we protect the taxpayer and get the hospital built as expeditiously and as quickly as possible.”
Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman
Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman has supported the Taoiseach and Health Minister in the latest controversy over the new hospital.
He said he “can absolutely understand the frustration of taxpayers and parents” at the failure to deliver the monumental facility – which is the subject of a funding struggle between its development board and the main contractor.
The latter, BAM, has utterly rejected comments from Health Minister Stephen Donnelly to Simon Harris in which he claimed the builder was attempting to extract as much money from the State as possible for delivering the project.
Mr O’Gorman’s intervention came as Sinn Féin health spokesman David Cullinane described as “laughable” the statement of Mr Harris that the Government was not a soft touch for the recovery of overruns in such large-scale infrastructure projects.
Mr Cullinane said there was no certainty that the hospital – once estimated to cost a total of €300m – would have its price capped at €2.2bn, or that it would be finished and admit its first patients next year, half a decade late.
Mr O’Gorman said he wanted to see “this hugely important high-tech facility open”, as parents wanted it operational and available to their children.
“I can also say there is huge frustration across Government in terms of the approach that the developer has taken to this, to the building and construction, and to the continuing elongation of the timelines here,” he said.
BAM has rejected all political criticisms and is pursuing claims for additional costs it says are justified under the terms of its contract with the State.
The development board of the hospital is due before the Oireachtas committee on health on Wednesday this week, when an up-to-date position is expected to be given, along with the latest statistics and estimates.
Social Democrats’ spokesperson on health, Róisín Shortall said Mr Donnelly had made “serious allegations” against developers BAM, and these needed to be addressed to see where the truth lay.
The main contractor has reiterated that it rejects Mr Donnelly’s allegation in the strongest terms.
Meanwhile, Ms Shortall criticised the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB), which is responsible for project management of the James’s Street development – which Mr Cullinane said was already the most expensive such development in the world.
Ms Shortall said members of the Children’s Hospital board had been “quite unsatisfactory” in providing answers to questions during their previous appearances before the Oireachtas Committee on Health.
