The Public Accounts Committee has heard there is still no date for the completion of the National Children's Hospital and thousands of defects are yet to be resolved.
The hospital had an original completion date of August 2022 while costs have ballooned from a planned €650 million to an expected €2.2 billion.
The development board of the new hospital also told the committee that they have spent more than €5 million on legal fees over the last 12 years.
Chief Executive of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) David Gunning said its cumulative bill for general legal fees was €5.3 million between 2014 and February 2026.
He said this came from settling, adjudicating and defending €1 billion in claims over disputes with lead contractor BAM, who were not present at the committee.
In a statement, BAM defended their "strong track record of successfully delivering major hospital projects across Ireland and beyond".
"The National Children's Hospital is the largest healthcare investment in the State’s history and what is being described is the normal snagging and commissioning phase required on projects of this scale and complexity," the statement read.
BAM said that "highly selective data is being used, which is both misleading and fails to show the full picture".
"For example, of the 5,728 areas/rooms in this hospital, it has been reported that just 3,185 have been completed, ignoring the fact that an additional 1,219 have been offered to the client and are awaiting review.
"The public have seen for themselves in recent weeks through broadcast media coverage that this is a high-quality project in its final stages."
The statement noted that evolving completion dates were "identified as a key risk as far back as 2019, when PwC highlighted ongoing design change as one of the biggest challenges to delivery".
"Through the contract's dispute resolution process, the conciliator has already recommended BAM over €140million, along with time extensions of over 300 days. Due to client-instructed design changes, in addition to this, an increase of €53million has been agreed as provisional sums for BAM."
BAM concluded the statement by saying they continue to work closely with the NPHDB and Children's Health Ireland to deliver the hospital as quickly and safely as possible for the children of Ireland.
Mr Gunning told the committee that the employer's representative, which is an independent party charged with administering the contract, had adjudicated 3,165 claims worth €819 million - and has awarded a net €52 million in favour of BAM.
He said "there's quite a number of claims" that have yet to go through "of a similar quantum", with additional matters before the High Court.
However, he said - notwithstanding litigation - the board was confident it would deliver the project for under its €1.88 billion share of the budget - with the remaining €361 million falling on Children's Health Ireland (CHI).
CHI transformation director Julia Lewis said that figure was based on a completion date in 2025 and said it could rise higher depending on when it receives the building.
Speaking to the committee, Mr Gunning said he was not in a position to provide a new substantial completion date as BAM had not yet provided a programme update to the employer's representative.
He said BAM has indicated it will be submitted tomorrow and will then have to be assessed for compliance.
However, on substantial completion, he said: "We are close - it's months we're talking about."
Mr Gunning said it was the board's view that BAM was not resourcing the project adequately.
"BAM has missed its substantial completion dates. This is primarily due to its failure to deploy sufficient skilled labour and competent management resources to properly supervise the site and maintain effective quality assurance processes," Mr Gunning said.
"As a result, there has been no consistent, right-first-time approach to delivery, and it has also failed to properly programme, co-ordinate and sequence the works in a logical and efficient manner."
BAM consistently states that it is adequately resourcing the project and that the development programme has evolved in response to "instructed design changes" and "additional scope" during the project, with each updated completion date reflecting those changes rather than "any failure of performance".
However, the development board's Project Director Phelim Devine said design is not delaying completion as he blamed "rework and closing out defects".
He told the committee there had not been any design change on the project in 2026 that had impacted physical work on site, adding that there had been "no material change to design and functionality" to the building since 2019.
"If you go back nine months, it's 58 issues in 58 rooms. If you go back 18 months, it's I think, 200 issues in about 200 rooms," Mr Devine said.
"And I'm going to give you an idea what they are, they're very simple issues. It's moving a socket in a room, or it's actually adding an emergency light."
Mr Devine acknowledged there had been 23,500 reissues of drawings - with 6,000 core drawings associated with the project going through revisions.
BAM disputes the claim that there have been no design changes in 2026.
After the completion of construction, the hospital will also require an estimated seven-month commissioning period before it is ready for use.
We need your consent to load this rte-player contentWe use rte-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
CHI 'conceded' hospital won't open until 2027
Member of the Public Accounts Committee Séamus McGrath said he does not believe that the Children's Hospital is going to open in 2026.
He said CHI "conceded" that it will be 2027 in its answers to the Committee today.
Mr McGrath said this is "deeply disappointing" and "extremely frustrating".
He said the Board's legal bill of more than €5m since 2014 is the result of "significant disputes" that are "ongoing" between BAM and the Board.
Mr McGrath said it is "fair to say" that some of the settlements will be in favour of the contractor and that the current overall budget for the project of "about €2.24bn" is "likely to increase" further by an "unknown" amount.
He added that the size of the budget will also depend on the hospital's completion date, "because CHI were quite clear that the longer this goes on, it will cost more.
"They obviously are in preparatory work, they're trying to recruit appropriate staff, they're trying to equip the hospital, there is a lot of work being undertaken at their end.
"But if they don't have a clear date in sight, it obviously has implications for the budget as well."
