Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll-MacNeill has said that the opening date of the national children’s hospital in 2026 had been known for some time,
According to the Minister for Health, a six-to-nine-month commissioning phase would be required once the building was completed by the builder and handed over in June 2025, meaning the hospital cannot be fully open to patients for a number of months.
Work has already begun off-site on the commissioning phase, she told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, but much of the work such as fitting out operating theatres could not take place until there was access to the building.
“So that means putting in surgical equipment, putting in the beds, putting in the laboratories, training the staff, the 4,000 staff from three different hospitals. That work has already begun off off-site. But the on-site piece of that and training in a new digital healthcare system is between six and nine months. The previous minister gave those figures many, many times. And generally the international evidence that I’ve looked at so far shows that that commissioning phase can take 10 and 12 months in hospitals that we have been examining and working with,” she said.
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The Minister also confirmed that children could not be moved into the new hospital during winter months.
“If you imagine the logistics of this, we want to move the children from Temple Street, Crumlin and Tallaght essentially over a seven to 10 day period. What we do is we discharge as many children as can be discharged. We essentially have to close the city overnight and move the sickest children in Ireland in ambulances from the hospital that they’re in to a new hospital,” she said.
“All of the international evidence says that you do not do that during a risky period. Other children’s hospitals have been opened in spring, summer and autumn, but never in the winter, because while the hospitals are busier from November to March, there are more staff off with respiratory illnesses. There is more respiratory disease in the hospital itself. It is the busiest possible period for ambulances. It’s not the right time to do that.
“I certainly as a parent, I would not want the Minister for Health to take a risk with the wellbeing of my sick child.”
Ms Carroll-MacNeill also said that she anticipated the final cost of the new hospital would be “close to” €2.24 billion and that additional claims by the builder BAM had yet to be adjudicated, but that to date only €48 million of the €853 million they were claiming had been approved.
“Just because BAM have put in a claim that, by the way, includes the commissioning costs, it doesn’t mean that they’ve gotten the money. I could ask you for money, any amount of money, it doesn’t mean you’re going to give it to me. The amount of money that the State has given BAM in those claims, which the State robustly defends, is €48 million out of €853 million. So I do appreciate that. It makes good headlines. I do appreciate that it stokes a little interest, a little fear. But the reality is, of €853 million sought, €48 million has been given,” she said.
“This hospital, if it costs us €2.3 billion, our annual spend on health is nearly €24 billion every year. So it’s €2.3 billion out of €24 billion. It’s a once off, €2.3 billion for a hospital that we would have for 100 years. So just to place some context on the amount that is out of our annual budget is really important.”
Ms Carroll-MacNeill said she supported openness and transparency at all times when asked about calls for builders BAM to appear before the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee.
“The purpose has always been to robustly defend these claims on behalf of the State,” she said.
