TAOISEACH Simon Harris has been urged to issue an apology to the public over the farcical over spend and delays in the National Children’s Hospital.
Executives from the hospital development board will be hauled before the Dail’s Health Committee on Wednesday to face questions over the latest war of words with the builder BAM.
In an opening statement to be read to the Committee, chief officer of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board David Gunning accused builder BAM of showing “complete disregard for sick children” with continued delays to finishing the project.
CONTINUED DELAYS
He will tell the Health Committee that BAM are not resourcing the project adequately, are repeatedly claiming rooms are complete when they are not and have pushed the completion date out four times in the past year.
The hospital was due to be handed over to the health service in February of next year with a six month fit out expected to see the hospital open to patients before the end of 2025 – however, this is now highly unlikely.
Documents provided to the Committee give examples of issues the Board have had with BAM.
In one instance, the Board had requested that square grilles in 11 operating theatres be replaced with circular ones.
BAM claimed this would delay the project six months and would cost an added €25 million.
However, the Board challenged this and the work was completed in a matter of weeks for just €200,000.
The documents show that there have been 2,311 claims made by BAM for added funding for the hospital with a value of €793 million.
Separately, a KPMG report provided to the HSE has raised concerns about the lack of preparation for the transition process from the three children’s hospitals into the new National Children’s Hospital.
‘COMPLETE FARCE’
The continued delays and overspends in the project dominated proceedings in the Dail on Tuesday.
Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald said the development of the hospital has “descended into complete farce” with never ending delays, massive overspends and zero accountability.
The opposition leader accused Simon Harris of signing off on weak contracts as Health Minister which led to the current debacle and claimed the Government is being “rolled over repeatedly” by the developer.
The Dublin TD pointed to children with scoliosis and spina bifida who are waiting years for surgeries and need this hospital open immediately.
In response, Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe said week after week TDs raise children’s waiting list issues in the Dail which he claims highlights the need for the national children’s hospital.
The Fine Gael TD said the Board of the hospital development are fighting on behalf of the Government and taxpayer when it comes to getting the hospital open as soon as possible.
He said that the Board is withholding payments from the developer as one of the levers they have to push for the hospital to be completed.
Minister Donohoe also said lessons have been learned from the hospital project which have changed contracts for developing other large scale projects.
APOLOGY CALLS
Labour’s Duncan Smith has called on Taoiseach Simon Harris to apologise to the public over the issue.
He said: “It is time for both the Taoiseach and the Minister of Health to make an unreserved apology for this debacle.
“People are unbelievably angry that there has been no control of spending of taxpayers money and all of the delays and now this new spectre of it not being operationally ready.
“I think they need to draw a line under this and present to us the people of Ireland an actual real plan that is going to get this over the line and operationally ready and I think to go with that the Taoiseach and Minister for Health need to offer the Irish people an unreserved apology.”
