The health minister said “nobody could accurately” put the final cost of the new children’s hospital and accused Sinn Féin of using it as a “pawns” to justify the extra spending, reports Breaking News.
Stephen Donnelly also said it would be important for the government to allow contractors to take account of past performance when awarding contracts for high-profile infrastructure projects in the future.
Plans to build a pediatric hospital in Dublin have been mired in controversy in recent years due to repeated delays as to how much it will cost and when it will open.
Last week it emerged that the planned handover date from the BAM contractor would be pushed back from March to May next year due to rising hospital costs.
Officials from the National Pediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB), which was tasked with designing and building the hospital in 2013, revealed this week that only 27 rooms had been completed, while 3,000 should already be completed.
The Oireachtas Committee was also told that the cost of the hospital could be as high as two billion euros.
Speaking to journalists at the opening of Dublin 16’s Ballyboden Primary Care Center on Friday, Mr Donnelly said the NPHDB must back up BAM’s tough demands to provide “for an appropriate amount of money” to the hospital, reports Breaking News.
Mr Donnelly admitted there were more that had not yet been assessed.
He said it was impossible to predict how these claims would be handled and whether they would be taken to court.
Mr Donnelly said the government supported the board in its commitment to BAM, which he described as “a world-class children’s hospital”, reports Breaking News.
Earlier this week, NPHDB chief executive David Gunning said €1.325 billion had been spent so far out of the €1.433 billion budget approved to build the hospital.
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