Brian Stanley
Question:31. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Health the expected final cost of the National Children's Hospital; and whether it will meet the deadline for completion. [8119/24]
View answerThursday, 29 February 2024
Questions (31)
Written answers
On 13 February 2024, Government approved enhanced capital and current budget sanctions for the New Children’s Hospital (NCH) project and programme, bringing the total approved budget to €2.24billion.
Included in this is the capital budget of €1.88 billion for designing, building and equipping the NCH and the two satellite centres. A separate €362 million budget is in place for the programme of integration and transition of services to the NCH, including commissioning, ICT, and the Electronic Health Record system.
The approved increase in the capital budget will address risk areas identified in the 2019 PwC report, which had the potential to place further cost pressure on the approved capital budget, including the impact of construction inflation greater than 4%. The Government considers that the project now has sufficient funding to address identified risks and see the hospital completed and opened.
The National Paediatric Hospital Development Board has advised that delay is the biggest contributor to cost but that the main contractor has set out its programme for the completion of the construction and fit-out of the hospital by Q4 2024. I expect the contractor to fully and appropriately resource the project to complete the hospital in line with its own programme commitments. Following this, Children’s Health Ireland will undertake the operational commissioning period to prepare the hospital for opening.