{"id":614048,"date":"2026-09-04T08:36:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T08:36:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/614048\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T08:36:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T08:36:12","slug":"setback-for-national-childrens-hospital-contractor-bam-in-near-e100m-bill-dispute-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/614048\/","title":{"rendered":"Setback for national children\u2019s hospital contractor Bam in near \u20ac100m bill dispute \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A conciliator has rejected a near \u20ac100 million compensation claim by Bam<\/a> over disputed costs incurred during construction of the long-delayed new national children\u2019s hospital<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The recommendation, which Bam can challenge in court, means the builder has failed to recover a large sum of additional costs that it said arose due to a \u201creflected ceiling plans issue\u201d.<\/p>\n

The lead contractor on the hospital project, which is expected to cost more than \u20ac2.2 billion to complete, made a time-delay claim last year relating to the ceiling plans issue. Specific details of the claim have not been released. <\/p>\n

It could relate to ceiling-level elements of the project, such as lighting, ventilation, fire-safety equipment and other building services. <\/p>\n

In accounts published by Bam<\/a> in June, company directors said they were confident a conciliator reviewing the claim would make a recommendation in its favour, \u201cwhich the group believes will generate further value to compensate for the significant extra costs caused by this issue\u201d.<\/p>\n

The conciliator has now made a recommendation on the claim and decided against Bam. The Irish Times understands the value of the claim by Bam was close to \u20ac100 million worth of additional expenses it said it had faced on the project.<\/p>\n

Bam still has the option to pursue legal action over the claim. When asked if the company would challenge the conciliator\u2019s recommendation, a spokesman for Bam said: \u201cDue to the confidential nature of the conciliation process, Bam has no comment to make.\u201d <\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board said it had no comment to make on the outcome of the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe conciliator has made a recommendation on the matter, but due to the confidential nature of the conciliation process, the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board has no comment to make on the outcome of that process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Construction on the new national children\u2019s hospital, which will be located on the St James\u2019s Hospital campus, commenced in 2016. It was originally forecast that the project would cost \u20ac987 million to build, but the cost has since risen to more than \u20ac2.2 billion.<\/p>\n

Bam, as lead contractor, has made a number of claims relating to increased costs it has faced during the construction phase of the project. Last year, the hospital\u2019s board said it was defending \u20ac880 million in claims<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Under the hospital construction contract, contractor claims are resolved through a dispute management process, which may involve the employer\u2019s representative, the project board, conciliation, adjudication and the courts.<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for the hospital development board said: \u201cAs it stands, claims are now at all levels of the dispute management process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conciliators have previously found in favour of Bam on a number of large claims, including an extension of the completion date and an adjustment to the contract amount by \u20ac16.8 million.<\/p>\n

A separate dispute over a \u201cglobal delay claim\u201d resulted in a conciliator recommending an extension of 267 site working days and an increase in the contract sum by \u20ac107.6 million. Another claim was made over the manner in which inflation was to be calculated, and a conciliator recommended Bam was entitled to just over \u20ac19 million for inflation.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, five sets of legal proceedings<\/a> in relation to disputed bills were launched by Bam over the contract for the national children\u2019s hospital and entered into the fast-track Commercial Court.<\/p>\n

Bam\u2019s latest financial accounts said the project has continued to \u201cpresent challenges from both an operational and financial perspective, and while the pace of design changes by the client slowed during 2025, they continued to be made and to adversely impact the project completion programme\u201d.<\/p>\n

Last year, Bam\u2019s turnover rose by 26 per cent to \u20ac535.3 million, while pretax profits were up 16 per cent to \u20ac27.4 million. The company\u2019s directors approved payment of a \u20ac53 million dividend to its Dutch parent firm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A conciliator has rejected a near \u20ac100 million compensation claim by Bam over disputed costs incurred during construction…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[56409,72,61,60,29096],"class_list":["post-614048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-bam","tag-business","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-national-childrens-hospital"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614048"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614048\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}