Children's hospital to miss 16th completion date

Ottoline Spearman

The National Children’s Hospital is set to miss yet another completion target, adding to a long list of delays for Ireland’s most expensive public build.

This will be the 16th time the project has been delayed, with works now expected to be completed next year.

Building on the site at St James’s Hospital in Dublin began in 2016 after years of disagreement over the location of the hospital.

Costs continued to grow, rising from €987 million to €2.2 billion, with repeated delays exacerbated by an increasingly fractious relationship between the builders, BAM, and the board overseeing the project, the Irish Times reported.

The main contractor, BAM, is facing growing pressure as costs continue to rise and deadlines slip further.

The project has faced years of complaints about lack of transparency and delays, with numerous meetings held by now-dissolved Joint Committee on Health to discuss the project.

In one such meeting, reported by the Irish Times, Fine Gael Senator Martin Conway said the absence of updates was "nothing short of disgraceful".

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Aontú announced that they would table a vote of no confidence in the Tánaiste, over his handling over child healthcare. 

Party leader Peadar Tóibín told reporters on Tuesday: “We believe, if you look at the crisis within CHI and the crisis within the National Children’s Hospital that Simon Harris is not fit to be a minister in this Government, and we are calling for his resignation.”

The vote will be held at 3.30pm on Wednesday.