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The Taoiseach predicted there will be years of disputes with contractor BAM about payments even after the hospital opens
Mr Donnelly confirmed to ministers today that the costs for the project has gone up by €500 million taking the final bill to €2.24 billion.
A previous estimate in 2019 put the final bill for the project at €1.7 billion.
The Taoiseach said the hospital will open this year, with a target date of October, telling the Dáil: “We will not be allocating any more.”
But he predicted: “There will be years of disputes with the contractor (BAM) about payments even when the hospital is fully open.”
Minister Donnelly earlier said the extra costs include “costs associated with the site being closed during Covid” and the war in Ukraine, which he said “significantly increased building inflation”.
“The amount that we have put in here today the €2.24 billion includes the forecast from the development board as to the full and final cost of this. Certainly in the lifetime of this Government there will be no additional memo looking for more funding,” he told RTÉ’s News at One.
“This is an expensive hospital. It is an expensive design. It is on an expensive site, it is not the most expensive hospital in the world but it is a lot of money Irish people are paying,” he said.
“If there is a silver lining to that, we are getting a huge amount in terms of children’s healthcare, it is going to be transformative.”
He said the rise in costs is “very frustrating”.
Cabinet today agreed to increase the maximum allocation for the hospital to €1.9 billion for the build and €300 million on the current side, related to the commissioning and then the decommissioning of Crumlin and Temple Street hospitals.
“So the total cost will be €2.2 billion, of which €1.4 billion has already been been drawn down,” the Taoiseach told the Dáil.
“We expect handover to occur this year and to be open to patients next year. I think it is important when we talk about the entire cost that we don’t make the mistake of thinking it’s just about the very large building which we can now see in Dublin next to St James’s Hospital.
“It’s also the satellite centres in Blanchardstown and Tallaght, which are open and treating patients. It also involves some of the costs associated with the original Mater concept. So it’s a huge project across five different five different sites.
“When it’s open, it’ll be an incredible state-of-the-art hospital. It will care for our children for the next 50 to 100 years, and it will be comparable, if not superior, to many of the best children’s hospitals in Europe and around the world.”
It will be “our first digital public hospital,” with 300 individual rooms for every child that needs to be admitted and space for their parents to sleep in the room beside them, he continued.
“I look forward to the hospital opening next year and seeing patients being treated there for the first time.”
But Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said the escalating cost “strikes at the heart of the Government’s credibility”.
She said the Coalition was “a Government that can’t keep people safe, can’t put a roof over people’s heads and can’t build a hospital without turning it into a farce.
“Public confidence is now on the floor. The hospital is incomplete. The doors aren’t open, and children aren’t being treated and despite the billions being spent, we don’t have a date. We can’t have confidence when the hospital will be up and running.”
The National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) confirmed last year that the hospital will not be handed over to Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) by developer BAM until October of this year at the earliest.
CHI will need at least six months to make the facility operational, meaning that the long-awaited hospital will not open until April 2025 at the earliest.
“The board has made it very clear that that will only be met if the contractor fully resources this project,” said Mr Donnelly.
“If the contractor meets its deadline, then it will be April or May of next year.”
Today’s News in 90 seconds – 13th February 2024
In a statement, the Department of Health said the Government said it had approved enhanced capital and current budget sanctions for the NCH project, bringing the total approved budget to €2.24 billion.
This includes the design, build and equipping costs, including the satellite centres at Tallaght and Connolly hospitals of €1.88 billion.
It also includes a separate €360 million for the integration and transition of services to the NCH, including commissioning, ICT and electronic health records.
The hospital will provide 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 5 MRIs and 110 outpatient rooms.
The department said project costs, like other areas of the construction sector and wider society, have also been impacted by other external pressures including the impacts to supply chains arising from the Covid-19 pandemic and other global events such as the war in Ukraine and Brexit.
The department said: “The main contractor has now set out its programme for the completion of the construction and fit-out of the hospital by Q4 2024. Allowing for an operational commissioning period of at least six months for Children’s Health Ireland (CHI), the hospital could open in mid-2025.”
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