We will not re-tender for children’s hospital

‘There’s no going back,’ says Health Minister despite soaring costs

THE Government will not be retendering for the building of the National Children’s Hospital despite the construction firm’s invitation to do so, the Health Minister said yesterday.

Simon Harris said ‘there is no going back’, after the construction firm BAM said it would opt out of the controversial project if the board responsible wished to retender the contract.

On the Marian Finucane Show on RTÉ Radio One, Mr Harris said there was no going back.

He said the project would continue as planned and that it would be built on his watch by 2023.

Mr Harris said he was frustrated that the focus had been on the cost of the hospital rather than on its health benefits.

Addressing the issue of whether it could be re-tendered, he said there were already ‘bricks on top of bricks on the site’. He said he had been presented with three options – delay, re-tender, or proceed, and he had opted to proceed.

A change of contractor would cost at least another €150m and a delay of another 18 months.

A report by PriceWaterhouse Cooper, which will examine how the costs of the project have spiralled is due by March 29.

The cost of the project has risen from an original estimate of €650m to €983m in 2017, and now stands at €1.43bn.

However, the costs of equipping the building and providing the necessary IT infrastructure will push overall costs to some €1.7bn. Many commentators have been saying that the eventual cost would likely exceed €2bn but Mr Harris said this was ‘a made-up figure.’

In the Dáil on Tuesday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said some firms should be blocked from receiving further State contracts, and accused unidentified firms of ‘lowballing’ the cost of their bids and then driving up prices later.

Mr Harris said yesterday: ‘The Taoiseach made very clear in his statement that he wasn’t talking about any particular company and the record of the Dáil shows that.’

After the Taoiseach’s comments, Theo Cullinane, chief executive of the Irish branch of BAM, the main contractor for the children’s hospital, said: ‘BAM wishes to confirm it did not benefit inappropriately from the tender process’.

Mr Harris will face a motion of no confidence by Sinn Féin this Wednesday in the Dail.

‘It’s the seventh motion of no confidence to be tabled by Sinn Féin, quelle surprise. It won’t help build the hospital,’ he said.

He also spoke about the nurses’ pay dispute and how his wife Caoimhe is a nurse.

‘I think we were both relieved she was on maternity leave, so that is family planning at its best.

‘During the strike she said, “You’re lucky you didn’t ask me to choose between you and my friends and colleagues in recent weeks.”

‘She knows and I know how hard nurses work.’

Frustrated by the focus on the cost