Children’s hospital developers ‘committed to June 2025 deadline’ – Donnelly

By Rebecca Black, PA

The developers of the new national children’s hospital have said it will be complete by June next year, the Minister for Health has said.

Stephen Donnelly said Bam had given him a commitment to finish the hospital by June 2025.

The project has been blighted by delays as well as cost increases, from an estimated €650 million in 2014 to €2.2 billion.

There have also been concerns that the completion date could go into 2026.

Following completion, there will be an approximately six-to-eight-month commissioning period before the site is ready to accept children as patients.

Mr Donnelly said on Sunday that he had met with the chief executive of Royal Bam, the parent company of Bam Ireland, and received a commitment that the June deadline would be met.

He told RTE’s This Week programme: “I met the global chief executive of Royal Bam. We had a pretty open and frank discussion; I hope it was a productive discussion.

“They are engaging with the National Paediatric Development Board so that the Government can be presented with a work programme, a timeline that both parties believe … and that Royal Bam will stand over.

“They have committed to the June deadline.”

Mr Donnelly also revealed that he had asked for more workers on site to help finish the job.

“They simply have not had enough workers on site, there have not been enough people on site finishing off that hospital,” he said.

“I made that very clear to the chief executive of Royal Bam, that one of the core things we want to see is more resourcing on site.”