Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 23 January 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

National Children's Hospital: Discussion (Resumed)

Mr. John Pollock:

As I explained, the rates tendered in 2016 are the same rates that the contracts are being held to now for phase B works. We were highly conscious that we were in a construction market where tender inflation is very different from consumer price and product inflation, for example, in respect of the price of steel or glass. Construction inflation, when we drew up our first budget in 2014, was trending at 3%. We are in a very different environment now. Publicly reported figures show construction inflation is trending at 6%, 7%, 8% or 9% in Dublin. By going to the market in 2016, we were able to secure prices for concrete and steel at 2016 rates, which correspond to a better price than we would get today if we went out into the marketplace.

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