Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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494. To ask the Minister for Health the extent to which delays are impacting the construction of the national children’s hospital; the potential extra cost to the project of the delays; his views on whether the project will be delivered on time in 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25561/19]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The new Children's Hospital is a large scale and complex construction project and construction is due to be completed by Quarter 3 2022. As stated by the Chair of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board at the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health, last week, some elements of the project are behind schedule and some are ahead of schedule. Over the next three years of construction there would be opportunities to mitigate these types of delays. As the Chair also pointed out there are certain issues which may give rise to additional costs such as construction inflation, any changes in the scope of project or statutory changes. There is a robust process in place for the assessment of additional claims by the contractor. All claims are independently assessed and were there is a dispute on the validity of a claim the contract sets out a dispute management process to resolve the matter.