Budget for new children’s hospital soars by 30%

The Cabinet has approved more than half a billion euro in additional funding for the new national children’s hospital, as runaway costs are projected to reach 2.24 billion euro.

The almost 30% rise on the previously approved budget includes millions of euro for an expected payout to the contractor over ongoing disputes, as well as other contingency funding.

The Government’s new budget is designed to cover the build of the Dublin hospital and two satellite centres at Tallaght and Connolly, as well as hundreds of millions of euro for technology and the transitioning out of older hospitals.

Health minister Stephen Donnelly said he was “frustrated” with the rising costs but pointed to site delays caused by Covid-19 and construction inflation associated with the war in Ukraine.

“This is an expensive hospital, it is an expensive design, it is on an expensive site,” he said.

“It is not the most expensive hospital in the world, but it is a lot of money that Irish people are paying.

“What I would say is that there is a silver lining too that is we are getting a huge amount in return for that money in terms of children’s healthcare. This is going to be transformative.”

The Department of Health has defended the project by saying the finished building will be a “state-of-the-art hospital”, providing 300 individual, inpatient, ensuite rooms – each with its own place for a parent/guardian to sleep.

In addition, it will double the current number of critical care beds to 60, and have 93 day beds and 20 dedicated, ensuite mental health (CAMHS) beds.

Theatre capacity will be expanded to 22 theatres and procedure rooms. The building will accommodate five MRIs and 110 outpatient rooms.

The Department said the hospital is now more than 90% complete with the fitout of rooms and the installation of medical equipment under way, and the first roof-top helipad of its kind in Ireland, to be shared with St James’s Hospital, recently completed.

Amid the spiralling costs, the main contractor has made claims worth an approximate total of 770 million euro over the project.

Mr Donnelly said an adjudicator has made decisions on about 645 million euro of the claims and has awarded 2.7% in favour of BAM.

The minister said the 512 million euro in additional funding agreed by Cabinet on Tuesday includes an amount against the final settlement to the contractor, with additional contingency funds.

Mr Donnelly did not give a figure for the final expected figure to BAM but said it was “absolutely not” projecting to cover all claims.

The Department said the hospital’s development board continues to defend robustly the claims “without merit”.

Mr Donnelly told RTE that if BAM meets its own schedule, the hospital will be complete by the end of October.

There will be a commissioning period of at least six months before patients are seen at the hospital, by April and May 2025 at the earliest.

However, the hospital’s development board has expressed concern that the contractor had not fully resourced the project.

Mr Donnelly said there would be no memo for additional funding in the lifetime of this Government.