New children’s hospital to open by early 2025 ‘at the latest’, says Varadkar

The new national children’s hospital will be open to patients by the end of next year or early 2025 at the latest, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.

Mr Varadkar told the Dáil on Tuesday that the budget of €1.43 billion would not be “adequate” and will have to be increased. He said the original cost of the hospital was “substantially underestimated” at about €600 million in 2015 and 2016.

Mr Varadkar was speaking during Leaders’ Questions ahead of an appearance by David Gunning, chief officer on the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board, before the Oireachtas Committee on Health on Wednesday.

Mr Gunning is due to tell the committee that the board cannot provide an up-to-date completion date for the hospital, while citing examples of project developer BAM’s low productivity and its failure to provide monthly progress reports.

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Mr Varadkar said the cost of the hospital had been affected by Covid-19, the war in Ukraine and inflation but that “everything possible is being done to ensure this project is completed as soon as possible”.

“As things stand, the new hospital is 85 per cent complete and the focus of works continues to be on internal fit out and commissioning of mechanical and electrical services. Medical equipment is now also being installed. The elevated helipad, which will serve the children’s hospital and St James’s is progressing to its final stages of assembly.”

[ National Children’s Hospital: Still no completion date for the project, board will tell Oireachtas committee ]

The Fine Gael leader said substantial completion is expected by next May and there would be a “period of months” before the hospital is fully commissioned.

“We expect it to be open to patients towards the end of next year or early 2025 at the latest,” he said.

Mr Varadkar said a €2 billion figure for the final cost was being used in “a misleading way”. He said it not only related to the main campus of the new hospital at St James’s, but also urgent care centres at Blanchardstown and Tallaght, the decommissioning of Crumlin and Temple Street hospitals, as well as money spent on the failed attempt to build on the Mater site almost 20 years ago.

‘Nobody in charge’

Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said it was “clear” there was “nobody in charge of this project” and that it had become a “runaway train”. Mr Doherty said the hospital would be one of the most expensive in the world and yet the board, the developer or the Government could not say when “the doors are actually going to open” or what the final bill would be.

“The board are writing cheques to BAM, while at the same time, they’re expressing their anger with BAM of how the developer is failing to deliver and this just beggars belief,” he said.

He claimed Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly was “asleep at the wheel” in relation to the hospital.

Mr Doherty said the hospital was supposed to cost €650 million when Mr Varadkar was minister for health and now had a price tag of €2 billion while the board couldn’t guarantee the new timeframe of opening next year.