National Children's Hospital costs to reach €2bn with only 27 rooms completed so far

Just 27 rooms at the National Children's Hospital have been completed out of a target of 3,000, with costs now expected to balloon to more than €2 billion.

The board of the hospital project told the Oireachtas Health Committee on Wednesday that the contractor for the build, BAM, has failed to provide a progress report since February.

The National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) said BAM achieved only 67 per cent of its planned output levels in the last 12 months.

David Gunning, chief executive of the board, said there have been additional cost claims made by BAM.

He said BAM had “not issued a contract compliant programme”, adding “this is unacceptable”.

Until that programme is delivered, Mr Gunning said no indicative dates could be given on the completion of the hospital.

He said the company was “not meeting its contractual obligations”. The NPHDB has also withheld 15 per cent of the payments for works completed due to BAM and claimed that it was providing sufficient resources to deliver the hospital.

The NPHDB has submitted to Government a request for more capital funding beyond the €1.433 billion in order to meet the expected total cost of the hospital.

Mr Gunning said the final figure will “absolutely” go beyond that €1.433 billion.

He said that it was “incredible” that the claims being made by the contractor were “heading towards the actual contract value”.

He told TDs and Senators on the Oireachtas Health Committee that €756 million worth of claims had been submitted by the contractor against an original contracted sum of €910 million.

“There’s clearly a strategy the contractor is following,” he said. “Our position is to defend that and challenge each and every one of those claims.”