A LOAD OF LOW-BALLS..
»»Contractors ‘not to blame’ for €500m project overspend »»Industry chief says Government ‘doubled the work’
GOVERNMENT planners are to blame for the National Children’s Hospital’s rocketing costs, building chiefs insisted yesterday.
It’s claimed they “low-balled” the original estimate and then doubled what they wanted.
And there was “no gun to the head” from builders, said Construction Industry Federation boss Tom Parlon.
He compared the situation to pricing for “what the outside of a four-bedroom house would look like,” without including what’s needed inside.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar had suggested it was the builders who were to blame for the “low-balling” that so far has led to the project overrunning by almost €500million. But Mr Parlon told the Irish Mirror “some of the best professionals in Europe” had costed what was presented to them.
He said the reason the costs had risen by so much on the hospital project was simple – “the quantum doubled”.
This means that the work the Government wanted done doubled, so the costs doubled in certain areas.
He said an initial tender was prepared before planning was approved, which then changed completely.
The three firms involved in the construction, Bam, Jones and Mercury were pricing the new work according to new requirements. Mr Parlon said their work brings them all over Europe on other billioneuro projects and they currently have huge building jobs agreed with clients such as Facebook and pharmaceutical giants Merck, Sharp & Dohme.
The stinging rebuke from the construction industry heaps pressure back on the politicians to explain the runaway costs – principally the Taoiseach and Health Minister Simon Harris. Mr Varadkar held the Health portfolio from 2014 to 2016 when the children’s hospital was going through key development phases. Mr Parlon
told the Irish Mirror it doesn’t stack up that the builders are to blame and the Government must be held to account.
He said: “They hired a massive team of professionals, some of the best [quantity surveyors] and designers in Europe and they hired a highly-qualified board and depended on them.
“But the form of tendering that they did, where the lowest price will definitely win, that’s not right. My understanding is that when the tendering was done, the rates for the different disciplines, be it supply of metres of concrete or the square footage of flooring or roofing, the measurement was deemed not to be complete.
“So [the construction firms] quoted at those particular rates and they were the rates that applied in 2016.
“Eventually, as the design was finished out, when it was re-measured by the experts on behalf of the Government, it was found to be very substantially more than the original one.
“And automatically without any negotiation, or without any gun to the head from the contractor, the costs automatically went up.
“There was an indicative design I think was used for the planning application, so the planning sailed through.
“So if you were applying for planning for a four-bed house, you don’t have to give the planning for the inside finishes, you only have to give the planning for what it looks like on the outside.
“It appears that the actual quantum substantially increased and the new price was a direct match between multiplying the quantum by the rate which was originally briefed.”
Mr Parlon said that this resulted in the “quantum” doubling for two of the firms involved, Jones and Mercury, which meant they had to go back in and say they now had double the work. An independent arbitrator appointed by the Government agreed the new costs based on that.
Mr Parlon added: “Whatever he said, went.”
When the tendering was done measurement was deemed not complete
TOM PARLON CIF CHIEF
YESTERDAY