BAM told Government they wanted to complete Children's Hospital by June 2025

Michael Bolton

The Department of Health were told by the developers of the National Children's Hospital, BAM, that they expected to have the project completed by June 2025.

In a meeting between the Department of Health and BAM in October 4th 2024, the then Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, pressed BAM on a completion date for the project.

Mr Donnelly questioned what has changed due to the several deferrals and whether the Government and the public can trust it will be open for June 2025.

At the meeting, Royal BAM CEO Ruud Joosten said that date was their goal.

In a document seen by BreakingNews.ie, he said "they have no interest in being on the job beyond next June".

The meeting, also attended by the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board, re-emphasised that BAM collectively will need to demonstrate a change in approach to deliver all that is required to meet the revised completion date, including earlier access for CHI’s commissioning teams.

BAM noted in the meeting that they would have to change their approach in order to meet the new deadline.

Days after this meeting, Mr Donnelly told RTÉ 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.”

In October of this year, the completion target was missed for the 16th time.

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

The cost of the hospital, which is set to cost €2.3 billion, is set to open in 2026.