{"id":641433,"date":"2026-10-01T08:22:33","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T08:22:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/641433\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T08:22:33","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T08:22:33","slug":"childrens-hospital-contractor-bam-submits-claims-for-e983m-over-disputed-costs-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/641433\/","title":{"rendered":"Children\u2019s hospital contractor Bam submits claims for \u20ac983m over disputed costs \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The contractor behind the new national children\u2019s hospital<\/a> has submitted claims for an additional \u20ac983 million over disputed costs incurred during the project, new correspondence shows.<\/p>\n

The construction of the facility on the St James\u2019s Hospital site in Dublin began in 2016. The subsequent years have been marked by ballooning costs \u2013 from \u20ac987 million to \u20ac2.24 billion, with repeated delays exacerbated by an increasingly fractious relationship between the builders, Bam, and the board overseeing the project, the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board <\/a>(NPHDB).<\/p>\n

In a letter to the D\u00e1il Committee of Public Accounts<\/a>, David Gunning, chief officer of the board, provided an update on the project.<\/p>\n

According to Gunning, the \u201clargest contributing factor\u201d to delayed completion is Bam\u2019s \u201ccontinued failure\u201d to resource the project. He added that this is \u201cexacerbated by inadequate quality assurance\u201d, which has led to \u201ctime-consuming rework\u201d.<\/p>\n

Over the past 15 months, Gunning said Bam had to \u201cextensively rework\u201d initial installations to meet contractual standards, including remediating all 316 manual sliding doors, 126 of the 244 bathroom pod floors and half of the operating theatre floors, of which three had to be redone for a third time.<\/p>\n

\u201cBam has addressed 199,700 defects to date, including remediating over 2,000 fire doors. Currently, approximately 2,000 defects remain, though new defects are added and closed during ongoing inspections,\u201d the letter said.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Children\u2019s hospital development board spent \u20ac672,000 on public relations servicesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018My youngest child will probably be bearded before the national children\u2019s hospital opens\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

It added that \u201c5,017 of 5,728 rooms have now reached the contract standard. The hospital cannot open until Bam has satisfactorily addressed all quality and compliance matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gunning also said that the contractor has submitted \u201csubstantiated claims\u201d of about \u20ac983 million. The board previously said it was defending some \u20ac880 million worth of claims.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe value of claims submitted by Bam should not be confused with either the amounts determined to be payable or an increase in the approved project budget,\u201d said Gunning.<\/p>\n

\u201cClaims are assessed through the contractual dispute resolution process, and the NPHDB continues to robustly defend claims it considers to be without merit.\u201d<\/p>\n

The controversial and costly children’s hospital is soon set to open, but when? Video: Enda O’Dowd <\/p>\n

Gunning said that, to the end of August, the employer\u2019s representative has determined and awarded 7 per cent of the claimed total in accordance with the contract \u2013 approximately \u20ac110 million.<\/p>\n

He added that the board is withholding 15 per cent of payments because there is \u201cno compliant programme in place\u201d that would outline a timeline for completion.<\/p>\n

Committee chairman John Brady (Sinn F\u00e9in) said the latest update makes for grim reading.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter months of delay following the last completion deadline being missed, we still do not have an agreed deadline. Put simply, we have absolutely no idea when this new hospital will open,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is simply unacceptable for a project that has already suffered unprecedented delays and spiralling costs. Patients, families and frontline healthcare staff deserve better than continued uncertainty.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Bam Ireland said the hospital is in the final stages of commissioning and certification.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe specification, selection and approval of products and systems involves multiple parties throughout the project, including the NPHDB and their design team, and forms part of the overall design, review and certification process,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Minister for Health expects State to take ownership of children\u2019s hospital next yearOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cBam continues to work closely with the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board and Children\u2019s Health Ireland to deliver the hospital as quickly and safely as possible for the children of Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bam has consistently denied that it has under-resourced the project, blaming late-stage design changes by the board as the reason for the delays.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, The Irish Times revealed a conciliator rejected a near \u20ac100 million<\/a> compensation claim by Bam over disputed costs incurred during construction.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018Wholly and entirely insufficient\u2019: BAM parent firm criticised over delivery of new children\u2019s hospitalOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The contractor behind the new national children\u2019s hospital has submitted claims for an additional \u20ac983 million over disputed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[56409,3414,14999,103,397,396,61,60],"class_list":["post-641433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-bam","tag-department-of-health","tag-department-of-public-expenditure-and-reform","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641433","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=641433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}