The completion of the new national children’s hospital has been delayed again, missing its 16th deadline, and it now seems the development will not be finalised until some point next year.
A date of November 24th for the substantial completion of the new hospital, which had been set by builder BAM a number of months ago, was missed.
December 3rd, which had been put forward as a date for the provision of early access to parts of the facility – essentially the first phase of completion – also slipped.
Building on the site at St James’s Hospital in Dublin began in 2016 after years of disagreement over the location of the hospital.
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The initial substantial completion date was scheduled for November 2022. Last month, the Social Democrats noted that if the most recent deadline was not met, it would be the 16th time it was missed.
The years since 2016 have been marked by ballooning cost, from €987 million to €2.2 billion, with repeated delays exacerbated by an increasingly fractious relationship between the builders, BAM, and the board overseeing the project, the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB).
The board said on Tuesday evening that early access to the facility was now set by BAM for later in December.
Neither the NPHDB nor BAM have set out a revised timescale for the substantial completion of the hospital.
BAM said it remained “fully committed to delivering this project to the highest standards, working closely with all stakeholders to actively manage the challenges involved and to secure the earliest possible opening date for the children of Ireland”.
The NPHDB said a realistic date of substantial completion of the hospital was within the gift of BAM, to commit to and deliver on.
“BAM submitted the last programme update to the Employer’s Representative (ER) – the independent third party responsible for administering the contract – on October 29th, 2025.”
It said the ER “has determined that this programme was not compliant with the contract”.
“The NPHDB continues to exercise its right to withhold 15 per cent of certified payments to BAM until a compliant programme is issued.”
It said BAM had committed to providing an updated programme for the completion of the new hospital “in the coming weeks”.
The NPHDB said its immediate priority was to get additional early access for Children’s Health Ireland as soon as possible to the new hospital.
“BAM’s focus should be on enabling this phased, methodical additional early access to completed parts of the building as soon as possible for Children’s Health Ireland, so it can begin loading and commissioning medical equipment in advance of integration with the new digital building and the new electronic health record system, the digital operating platform for the national children’s hospital Ireland.”
The NPHDB said it was continuing to do everything in its power to compel BAM to conclude its work and fulfil its contractual responsibilities.
Following the handover of the new hospital by BAM, commissioning of the facility for use in the treatment of patients is expected to take a further six to nine months.
