National Children’s Hospital delayed again

The long-delayed National Children’s Hospital will not treat a patient until at least June 2026, more than a decade after it was first announced and nearly six years behind its original schedule.

The staggering revelation came at the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee, where officials confirmed the €2 billion project has now missed its final deadline for the 15th time, with no firm guarantee that the latest timeline will hold.

Lucy Nugent, Chief Executive of Children’s Health Ireland (CHI), told the committee that even if construction is completed on the revised date of September 30, 2025, it would take a further nine months to commission the facility.

“There is a nine-month commissioning period, so the best optimum date would be the end of June of 2026,” Nugent said.

She also stated, “Nobody wants to be in this building more than the patients and the staff.”

The new timeline was outlined at the meeting of the PAC on Thursday, May 22, where senior representatives from CHI, the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB), the Department of Health, and the HSE were all in attendance.

David Gunning, Chief Officer of the NPHDB (pictured above), told the committee that the new construction completion date is September 30, 2025, but admitted it was too early to say whether he had confidence in that date.

“This further delay is a cause of great frustration,” he said.

The committee was told that the delay was the 15th time a final deadline has slipped since 2020.

Gunning said he does not have faith in the contractor, BAM, due to these repeated slippages.

While BAM maintains that delays have been caused by design changes, Gunning disagreed with this assessment and said the real problem lies elsewhere.

Project Director Phelim Devine stated that full resources are not being applied to the project by BAM.

The delays are also costing the State a significant amount. Gunning estimated that every month of delay adds €2 million to the cost of the hospital.

In his opening address to the PAC, he said the progress of the construction firm is “insufficient” to meet the June 2026 timeline for patient admission. According to Gunning, the contractor has only completed 60% of the planned progress on the project to date.

The financial implications of the delays were also underlined. Gunning revealed that 3,277 claims worth €856 million have been submitted by BAM.

He also noted that the NPHDB received the updated programme from BAM at 5.12pm on Wednesday, May 21.

Gunning said they would have to interrogate the newly submitted data before they could reach a conclusion on its reliability.

He reiterated that it was too early to say whether the revised completion date of September 2025 would be met.

In terms of planning and training, Fine Gael TD Joe Neville asked if the NPHDB would have early access to the building prior to substantial completion. Gunning confirmed that an element of early access was written into the contract in 2017.

Neville also asked whether hospital staff would be able to access the site to train on new equipment.

Lucy Nugent replied that this was indeed the plan and that staff would be able to work on a test ward during this phase.

Tensions also emerged around the administrative handling of the meeting itself.

Sinn Féin TD John Brady, who chaired the committee, criticised some of the delegations present for an “unacceptable and disrespectful” delay in providing briefing materials and opening statements.

Brady said that witnesses would be well aware of how important deadlines are to the committee. “

At this committee we don’t have a lax relationship with deadlines,” he said.

Brady stated that some opening statements were delivered after the required deadline, which is 48 hours before the committee sits.

He further revealed that some briefing material had been provided late last Tuesday, May 20, missing the official deadline of Friday, May 16.

“The expectation of this committee is that witnesses provide comprehensive briefing and opening statements in good time, so that members have time to analyse it before the meeting,” he said.

“Not to do so, in my view, is unacceptable and disrespectful to the committee.”

Brady also pointed out that a PAC meeting scheduled for November had been postponed due to the unavailability of CHI and the NPHDB.

In response to questioning about contractor performance, Gunning again stated that he does not have confidence in BAM, citing the 15 separate delays in meeting final deadlines.

He also noted that the primary contractor’s updated timeline still lacked supporting data when it was first delivered.

Gunning quoted a report by PwC that said the new children’s hospital is unique in scope, scale, and complexity in comparison to any other health infrastructure project in the country’s history.

He emphasised that the report’s authors were clear in stating the complexity of the project should not be understated.

Despite the continuing delays and lack of certainty, Gunning offered reassurances.

“I want to assure you that the NPHDB is working with our colleagues in CHI, the Department of Health, the HSE and the contractor to bring this world class hospital to substantial completion as soon as possible,” he said.

“We understand and share the concern that it has not been completed. Once completed and operational, this hospital will be transformational.”

He added that the facility’s impact would be far-reaching and represented a significant investment on behalf of the State.

Yet the optimism expressed was in stark contrast to the reality presented throughout the committee meeting: repeated delays, rising costs, an ongoing lack of trust in the main contractor, and widespread frustration across all levels of government and healthcare.

The public has waited years for this hospital to become operational, and even now, with a new timeline in place, the certainty of its completion remains elusive.

As it stands, construction is projected to continue until the end of September 2025.

Only after that will the hospital move into its nine-month commissioning period, putting the earliest patient intake at June 2026.

Until then, the country’s flagship paediatric healthcare facility will remain unfinished, its potential unrealised, and its doors closed.