Donnelly refuses to give commitment that national children’s hospital will be open in 2025

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has refused to give a commitment that the new national children’s hospital will be open to patients in 2025.

Speaking in Galway, Mr Donnelly said the hospital’s main contractor, BAM, had provided October 2024 as the date for handing over the facility to the State, but that timeline was currently being reviewed by the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB).

“The hospital is, I’m told, over 90 per cent complete and what’s happening now is a lot of the internal fit-out,” Mr Donnelly said.

This follows comments from David Gunning, the NPHDB chief executive, at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday when he conceded that it was “a possibility, I guess”, that the completion date would run into early 2026.

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Mr Donnelly said it would take six months, after the State takes possession of the building, for Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) to complete a final fit-out and pave the way for the first patients.

On the likelihood of seeing the hospital operate in 2025, the Minister said: “I’m taking my advice from the board. The board have been frustrated on several occasions.

“If you’d asked me that question two years ago, I would have said the advice I have is that the hospital should be open at the end of 2024. We now have a revised timeline in from the contractor for [handover in] October 2024.

“The board is reviewing that and there will be a six-month commissioning period from CHI,” Mr Donnelly said, referring to the period after which BAM completes building works.

A final budget for the children’s hospital is yet to be determined, but it is estimated the final cost will surpass €2 billion. The PAC heard on Thursday that a new budget for the facility will be submitted to the Government in the coming weeks.

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Mr Donnelly described the process of delivering the hospital as “deeply frustrating”, adding that “we need to push on – we need to get this fully completed”.

“The [hospital] board is on the record as stating that they don’t believe the contractor has fully staffed-up the construction project over a significant period of time,” Mr Donnelly said.

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“Nobody is satisfied with the time it is taking to open this hospital. What we have to do is work with the contractor and my understanding is there is a better relationship now between the contractor and the board, but it has been a difficult relationship.”

Mr Donnelly was speaking in Galway city on Friday afternoon as he officially opened a new €70 million Radiation Oncology Centre at University Hospital Galway which he said would be a “game-changer” for cancer patients in Galway and across the west of Ireland.