Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 12 July 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health

Update on New National Children’s Hospital: National Paediatric Hospital Development Board

Mr. David Gunning:

Observations at the board meetings and at our discussions with our stakeholders, I can guarantee the Deputy, are that much of the discussion and the answer to these questions are talked about at great length. I just want to make that point.

There is a slight problem in the Dutch situation in that I do not believe that they have a government at the moment. I believe the Dutch Government collapsed recently. Again, that is a tiny point.

I updated the members earlier than that we were due to get a programme last Friday. That has not arrived but BAM has committed to providing us with a programme next week. We look forward to getting that. I hope that will be a platform for discussions and for delivering certainty on the timeline and that this can open up meaningful discussions between the parties again. It is reasonable, as we look at this delay and how this project rolls on, that for me at this stage, certainty on the completion date is critically important. If we can get that, it would be a significant achievement.

To get that, we need the programme but we also need to understand that the contractor will deliver to that programme, with the assurances and commitment. Whether that needs to come from senior BAM executives or even through the governmental channels, as the Deputy has suggested; I do not know. I believe that that is the way forward. We look forward to getting the programme, to seeing what it says, to satisfying ourselves and then we look forward to engaging with BAM to reassure ourselves that it will deliver on this. That is our goal.

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