Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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277. To ask the Minister for Health the current projected final cost of the National Children's Hospital; when the hospital is expected to open; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [62610/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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The new Children’s Hospital (NCH) project comprises the main hospital on a shared campus at St James’s, the Outpatient and Urgent Care Centre at Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown, and the Outpatient and Emergency Care Centre at Tallaght University Hospital. The two satellite centres that are key to the project are open and operational.

Works on the main site are progressing well with the NCH clearly visible on the Dublin skyline as external scaffolding is being taken down. The major focus throughout 2022 has been the internal fit-out. The most advanced areas have finished floors, walls, ceilings and joinery, such as nursing stations and medical equipment installed and plumbing of the ensuite bathroom fittings. Other areas such as the Emergency Department, Imaging, Critical Care and Therapy areas are progressing at pace. The first of the clinical rooms have been completed, with the other 4,600 to follow in a sequenced manner over the coming months. Nevertheless, this remains a very complex project with over 40,000 activities detailed in the contractor’s programme, to complete over 6,000 spaces within the new building.

The National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) has advised that the main contractor’s own schedule suggests completion of the project can be achieved by March 2024 which would mean the NCH at St James’s could open in the second half of 2024, at the earliest, after the necessary commissioning period. The NPHDB is working to ensure that contractor will meet its own schedule.

In 2018, Government approved a capital budget of €1.433bn for the NCH project. This included the capital costs for the main hospital at St James's Hospital campus, the two satellite centres, equipment for the three sites, and the construction of the carpark and retail spaces. To date, just over €1.1bn of the €1.433bn budget has been drawn down for works on the project across the three sites.

Additional costs in relation to the integration and transfer of the services of the three children’s hospitals to the new sites and the electronic health record brings the total budget to €1.73 billion.

There are a number of items not included in this investment figure as there was no price certainly for them and nor can there be, for some, for the duration of the project. These include the sectoral employment order, recovery by the contractor for construction inflation greater than 4%, the impact of Covid-19, statutory changes, any change in scope resulting in healthcare policy changes, uncosted provisional sums, the impact of Covid-19, the contractors right to claim for additional true costs in line with public works contract provisions, and implementation of the 2019 PwC report recommendations.

Brexit, the pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine have severely impacted construction sector supply chains, energy and transport costs, and the NCH project is not immune to these external challenges. Every effort is being taken to mitigate the risks but these externalities beyond the control of the contractor and the NPHDB make speculation and more definitive forecasting unwise at this point in time.

Delay is the biggest contributor to cost and any formal request for an increase in budget will be made through existing governance structures for Government approval as appropriate.