Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 13 July 2021

Public Accounts Committee

National Paediatric Hospital Development Board: 2019 Financial Statement (Resumed)

9:30 am

Mr. Phelim Devine:

Prior to Covid, the project was six months in delay. We put that on the record before. Since Covid, there was a statutory shutdown period of seven weeks. The contractor did not come back to site for 15 weeks from the Covid shutdown. There was a four-month period. Then because of Covid, it takes more time. We cannot simply turn 1,000 workers on and off. It took some time for the contractor to ramp up. Obviously, Covid has impacted on productivity and measures. The period of six months plus the four months for the Covid shutdown amounts to ten months. There has been an ongoing impact of Covid since workers came back to work in July 2020.