Construction BUSINESS

The board with responsibility for delivering Ireland’s €1.7bn new National Children’s Hospital expressed grave reservations about the project’s completion date, according to new documents.

The minutes of the National Paediatric Health Development Board (NPHDB), dating from January to March of 2021 and seen by the Irish Examiner, detail a number of stresses on the beleaguered project.

They include a dispute between main contractor, BAM, and a steelwork supplier, which threatened to derail construction, a legal dispute over a claim from the contractor, and the anxiety caused by the chair of the board resigning suddenly, the second such resignation in less than two years.

The completion date for the project has become, together with its spiralling budget, a key unknown regarding the enormous build.

The minutes detail that BAM had supplied, as of March 2021, a substantial completion date forecast of November 2023. 

By the middle of last year, submissions to the Public Accounts Committee had forecast an opening date in the second half of 2024.

However, the minutes further note that BAM’s projection, delivered in January 2021, did “not take account of the future impacts of Covid-19 beyond the data date of 30 November 2020”.

Ireland spent much of the ensuing 14 months under lockdown, although the hospital build was exempt from Covid shutdowns from January 2021.

In March of last year, the board heard that BAM had suggested that its dispute with the aforementioned steel supplier threatened to “create a critical path delay to progressing the project”. 

The board agreed, however, that the delivery of steel was a matter for BAM.

The steel dispute was not the only issue surrounding construction discussed, with a so-called “frame claim” which was decided following conciliation in favour of BAM also being noted “with concern”.

The recommendation of the conciliator following that dispute, delivered on February 1, 2021, was that BAM be given an extension of 41 site working days to its substantial completion date.

Last April, BAM sued the NPHDB for €20m in the High Court over the disputed decision of a conciliator. 

Since May of last year, a moratorium on claims being lodged by the contractor against the board has been in place.

The concrete frame of the hospital was completed after 21 months in March 2021.

In its minutes, the board noted “the “potential risk to the project … emanating from the dispute”.

They stressed the importance for all concerned of “agreeing a definitive, realistic and achievable” completion date “as soon as possible”.

Separately, the sudden announcement of NPHDB chair Fred Barry’s intention to resign in January 2021 led to consternation among the other members of the board.

At an extraordinary meeting of the board to discuss the matter, it noted the likelihood of a vacancy “creating instability and great challenges” for the project.

Mr Barry resigned in February of 2021, less than two years after the departure of his predecessor Tom Costello.

The board noted that the recruitment of a new chair was a matter of the “utmost urgency” and that the minister for health should be informed of same. 

In February, it stated that a new chair could be in place for the end of that month following “prompt action by the minister”.

However, a new chair —Fiona Ross, who is also chair of CIE — was not appointed until six months later in September 2021.

In a statement yesterday, the board of the NPHDB confirmed three matters relating to the project are before the High Court, and details remain confidential. 

The moratorium on claims is ongoing, and board appointments are a matter for the minister for health.

BAM did not respond to a request for comment. 

Source Irish Examiner