The National Paediatric Hospital Development Board has submitted the final cost projection for the New National Children’s Hospital to the Irish Government, the board’s Project Director Phelim Devine disclosed, with the details withheld due to commercial sensitivities.
According to Devine, the estimate is currently under governmental review for approval. The hospital’s construction is expected to conclude by the end of October next year, with an opening slated for no earlier than April 2025.
Costs for the project are anticipated to exceed €2 billion, significantly overshooting initial budgets. The financial overrun has been blamed on a variety of factors, including inflation, the Covid-19 pandemic, and additional expense claims from construction firm BAM.
As it stands, the hospital’s construction is reportedly 92% complete, featuring a finished external façade. The removal of the final tower crane from the site is said to be set to take place shortly, while internally, several operating theatres, individual patient rooms, and critical care units have been completed.
Speaking to Newstalk Breakfast late last month, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that his statement in 2017 that “short of an asteroid” hitting the earth, the hospital would open in 2020, was clearly incorrect.
He said that it was a “huge project,” adding that it was also “the biggest we’ve ever done, the biggest the contractor has done.” He claimed that at no point during the years that the project has been underway has the contractor had the full promised amount of staff on site.
The Taoiseach claimed that the hospital would be handed over to the State next year, and that the following year it would begin to see patients.