"Simon Harris Signed the Contract for the Ballooning Costs at the National Children’s Hospital. He should Resign or be Fired" - Tóibín

Tuesday 18th February 2025, 14:38 pm

The Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín TD has called for the resignation of the Tánaiste Simon Harris as further reports stated there could be an extra €853m of costs at the Hospital and that it may not open until 2026. An Teachta Tóibín stated:

“Leo Varadkar once said that short of an asteroid hitting the planet the National Children's Hospital would be built by 2020 for a cost of €700 million. Simon Harris as Minister for Health signed the contract for the Hospital. Simon Harris rushed to tender before the project was properly designed. This lack of specificity in the design has led to thousands of changes and additions during the process which opened up a blank check to the building BAM.

Its clear that key infrastructure projects are grinding to a halt in a mire of overspend under the management of this government. It is critical now that we draw a line under this catastrophic culture of a waste. Since it comes from the very top its key that we impose accountability from the top of this government. Simin Harris must resign or be fired by the Taoiseach”.

“In a response to an Aontú parliamentary question Stephen Donnelly stated “the contract, signed between NPHDB and BAM in August 2017, allowed the below ground works (Phase A) to commence immediately. Prior to proceeding to the award of Phase B, the above ground construction, further approval was sought from Government and received in December 2018”. Stephen Donnelly studiously avoiding indicating who within government gave the go ahead of for the tender contract to be issued and who within government gave the approval for Phase B. It was Simon Harris”.

“The PwC Report which was commissioned by the Government following the cost over-runs, stated that the most significant risk for the completion of the Project was the NPHDB’s ability to manage design change. It is reported that BAM received over 23,900 new and revised drawings, sketches and BIM models and schedules for the hospital build. This is an unprecedented amount of change. Even more so given the hospital had eight years in design before construction commenced for Phase B.

An enormous level of design changes continued in recent times. 1,500 new drawings were issued to BAM in 2024. It is reported that BAM continues to receive revised drawings from the Board on a daily basis”.

“An example of these endless changes are the works to correct thousands of design errors which were identified by the NPHDB’s design team in January 2024 following a compliance audit. This work required the removal of thousands of ceiling-mounted services across the hospital. This included smoke detectors, light sensors, CCTV cameras, emergency signage and sprinkler heads. It is incredibly shocking that the majority of ceilings in the hospital are affected. The NPHDB’s design team was only instructed the required scope of work in May 2024”.

I have received a Bill of Quantities for the National Maternity Hospital and I am seriously concerned that the BOQ of this new project is equally as vague as the that of the National Maternity Hospital and will lead to serious costs over runs and delays.

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