Construction company BAM has said it rejects in the "strongest terms" allegations made against it over the construction of the National Children's Hospital.
The firm issued a statement in response to a letter seen by RTÉ News which was sent by Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly to Taoiseach Simon Harris and other senior Government figures on Friday.
In the letter, Mr Donnelly said it is the view of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board, which is responsible for the hospital project, that "BAM's approach is based on extracting as much money from the Irish taxpayer as possible".
He said this is "partly responsible for the under-resourcing of the project and the ongoing delays" with the completion of the hospital.
Minister Donnelly said it is the view of the board that BAM is "resourcing the project at less than half of what is required".
Under construction since 2017, the cost of the new hospital in Dublin now stands at more than €2.2 billion.
BAM, which is building the new hospital in Dublin, has described the allegations by the Minister for Health as "misleading, ill-informed and incorrect".
It said it particularly rejected Mr Donnelly's claim that BAM is trying to "extract as much money from the Irish taxpayer as possible" and "is holding the State to ransom".
The claims "have absolutely no basis in fact, nor are they helpful to ensuring this complex and vital project is completed at the earliest possible juncture", BAM said.
The company said the building of the hospital has led to a "highly complex construction dispute on which there is little agreement on the main drivers of delay".
However they added that in May an independent conciliator cited the level of design changes by the NPHDB as "by far the biggest factor in the increased costs and delays to the project."
BAM added that decisions by independent conciliators have "extended the official completion date of the project by 16 months".
Mr Donnelly said that a decision by the conciliator to award a sum in excess of €100m to BAM in May is being challenged by the NPHDB.
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Snag list
In his letter, Minister Donnelly said that of the 3,000 rooms offered as complete by BAM, "none were completed to the expected, acceptable standard".
He said that the issues arising with the rooms include "incomplete fittings and fixtures such as sinks, taps and showers, incomplete insulation work, grabrails not yet installed, and incomplete vinyl flooring".
"No one would accept these standards in their homes and the NPHDB certainly cannot, and will not, accept inferior standard of completion on the largest health investment in the history of the State," Mr Donnelly said.
In response to this, BAM has said it is "fully confident in the quality of the construction work for this world class hospital".
"The handover of rooms and de-snagging of minor issues is a routine element of the project which has clearly been affected by the level of client-instructed change.
"This is a process, not a one-off event, and rooms are never presented as final until the completed building is handed over to the customer," the company said.
HSE chief 'exceptionally concerned' by delays
HSE Chief Executive Bernard Gloster has said he is "exceptionally concerned" about the ongoing delays to the multi-billion euro national children's hospital, and that an "exact date" is needed to "finish this job".
Speaking on RTÉ's This Week programme, Mr Gloster said the situation is not acceptable.
"I'm exceptionally concerned because for every day this hospital isn't open the people of Ireland are being denied the opportunity to access one of the best health facilities in the world when it does open," Mr Gloster said.
The HSE chief added that clarity is needed on when the project will be completed.
"What I would say is what's required here from the contractor BAM and the paediatric hospital development board is a compliant programme, that has an exact date to finish this job."
"Right now today we do not have a compliant programme for completion, and that's a significant concern for me today," Mr Gloster added.
'Calamity of errors' - Sinn Féin
The entire National Children's Hospital project has been described as a "calamity of errors" by Sinn Féin's Spokesperson on Health David Cullinane.
The Waterford TD said "it is the children of this State and their families who pay the price for a hospital that is now at least €1.5bn over budget".
"The reality is that the dysfunction at the heart of this project has its origins in the original contract and is a product of failure on the part of former ministers for health Leo Varadkar, Simon Harris and now Stephen Donnelly," he said.
Mr Cullinane said that people have "no idea" how much the final cost for the hospital will be, or when it will begin to treat patients.
He said that while BAM has a responsibility to "deploy adequate resources to the project and complete the hospital as quickly as possible... the ultimate responsibility rests with the Government, and in particular Taoiseach Simon Harris and Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly."
The Social Democrats Spokesperson on Health also said the Government is to blame for the construction delays and is trying to shift the blame to BAM.
"The fact is, it is the job of Government to oversee and deliver critical capital projects - and this government, and previous governments, have abysmally failed in that duty," Róisín Shortall said in a statement.
Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has said "nobody" believes the ongoing delays to the National Children's Hospital are "acceptable".
Also speaking on RTÉ's This Week programme, Minister McEntee said that the delays to the project are affecting "children right across the country".
The Minister said she could not confirm reports that the February 2025 deadline for the completion of the project will not be met.
However, she said: "What I can say and I speak on behalf of all of us, nobody thinks it's acceptable the length of time this is taking."
