Asteroids, pandemics, and lots of delays...

THE completion date of the National Children’s Hospital has been a moving target, with question marks remaining over the final completion date. 2015: An application is lodged to build the hospital on the St James’s Hospital campus. It is estimated to cost €650million and be completed by 2020. 2016: Then-Health Minister (now Taoiseach) Leo Varadkar says that ‘short of an asteroid hitting the planet’ the hospital will be completed by 2020. 2016: BAM is awarded the building contract with a substantial completion date of August 2022, which is later extended to November 2022. 2020: The pandemic leads to two construction shutdowns. October 2022: Oireachtas Health Committee is told the hospital will not be open until the end of 2024. January 31, 2024: Health Minister Stephen Donnelly tells the Oireachtas Health Committee that it is ‘really hard to say’ if he is confident that construction will be completed this year. The minister indicates that the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB), the body overseeing the construction, are unsure of completion dates put forward by the contractor due to continuous delays.

February 13, 2024 1pm:

Mr Donnelly tells RTÉ’s News at One that the new completion timeline seeing patients treated by April/ May 2025 would only happen if BAM ‘meets its own deadline’ of October 2024. February 13, 2024, 2pm: The Taoiseach tells the Dáil: ‘The hospital will be open later this year. October is the target month. It will be open to patients in 2025.’