Mr. David Gunning:

I am grateful for the invitation to be here. Our statement was provided to the secretariat. I do not propose to read it but I would like to draw the committee's attention to a number of key points. I thank the committee members who visited the construction site in July and got a full tour. It is an important opportunity to reconnect to the vision of what we are all trying to create together, namely, a child-centred world-class facility that will support excellence in paediatric healthcare.

Dr. Emma Curtis, medical director, has been with the project since 2009 and therefore through the detailed design phase of that. Mr. Phelim Devine, project director, has been with the project since 2014.

I remind members we have already opened the Connolly and Tallaght outpatient and emergency care centres.

Even since members were on-site in July, we have made significant progress. We have provided a set of images that show developments since then, including the biome that connects the two sides of the doughnut on top. The rugby ball on top is now glazed. We are working with the intensive care areas. We are kitting out the operating theatres. Work on the emergency department, imaging, critical care and therapy areas is progressing at pace.

The National Paediatric Hospital Development Board, NPHDB, is also responsible for the equipping of the hospital. I am glad to report we have made excellent progress in this area. For example, we have now acquired all the imaging equipment - X-ray, CT and MRI. All the equipment to be built into the fabric of the building has been procured. Some purchase orders have been placed and some are being placed. I am glad to report to the committee that the work on the integration of this equipment into the building is well advanced.

The first rooms in the hospital will be deemed to be fully completed by October of this year, according to the plan. Some 4,600 spaces will be completed on a phased basis.

In terms of expenditure, the Government approved the investment of €1.433 billion. Let me bring that figure up to the end of August of this year. The expenditure in the report here is €1.13 billion. That is the current situation.

Again, I would like to remind members of the committee that there were certain elements within the original Government approval and there were items outside it. The biggest item that is currently on the table is inflation, but there were also items that had been excluded, such as regulatory change and the implications of the sectoral employment order. However, as the contract has evolved, we have also increased significant costs, such as in defending the claims and in terms of the implementation of the recommendations of the PwC report from April 2019. There are also ongoing costs related to Covid-19 and some costs related to Brexit. We are fully engaged with all stakeholders in these particular matters and that dialogue continues.

I will not spend much time on the wider construction sector challenges. I am sure that committee members are well aware of the disruptions and the market shortages. I guess that the main word is “uncertainty”, referring to that caused by these particular issues. We are seeking to engage with the contractor to manage those. On the issue of claims, we have provided a table and we certainly can go through that, depending on what the committee would like to do. We provided that to the committee in advance of the meeting, and I think that was yesterday.

In terms of the construction project timeline, the contractor is now reporting to us that substantial completion will be at the end of March 2024. We are engaged in a constant ongoing review with the contractor on the programme, on the potential mitigation and on securing that date.

In conclusion, there are agreed and established governance structures around this programme and this project. We are heavily engaged with both the HSE and the Department of Health, with the lead director of the HSE and with the national oversight group on all aspects of the project. All parties remain committed to delivering substantial completion of the children's hospital within the shortest possible timeframe. I would like to end this short contribution by saying that I again thank members of the committee for attending the hospital. I extend an open invitation to them to come back and see the further progress.