Results 1-20 of 1,067,095 for in 'Dáil debates' OR (speaker:Joe O'Brien OR speaker:Martin Heydon OR speaker:Martin Browne OR speaker:Frank Feighan OR speaker:Hildegarde Naughton OR speaker:Gary Gannon OR speaker:Robert Troy OR speaker:Michael Moynihan OR speaker:James Lawless OR speaker:Stephen Donnelly OR speaker:David Cullinane OR speaker:Alan Dillon OR speaker:Roderic O'Gorman) in 'Committee meetings'

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I wish the Chair and our colleagues a good morning. I welcome the opportunity to provide an update on the completion of the new children's hospital. I am joined by Fiona Ross, Derek Tierney, Tracey Conroy; and Patrick Lynch. We are all here today with a single focus, which is to see the new children's hospital completed and open and supporting the delivery of the best care possible to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: Electionitis is definitely diagnosable but is, as of yet, untreatable. I thank Deputy Durkan for his support. Colleagues here and in the wider Oireachtas have a job to do in holding the Government to account, as they should and must do. What has been helpful, and I thank colleagues for this, is that while they have asked tough questions of me and the Government - as they must do and I am...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: Members of the board were in before us last June and again last week, updating us on progress, or rather the lack of progress, in completing the children's hospital. I want to put on the record what they said to us last week, which I assume the Minister accepts. They said that in the last four years the main contractor, BAM, has shifted its completion date 14 times. Is that correct?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: They also said that in the last 12 months alone, BAM has shifted its substantial completion date four times, pushing it out by a total of eight months. Does the Minister agree with that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes, I do.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: They also said that in 2019 BAM committed to 1,700 so-called "productive operatives" - I am presuming they were talking about feet on the ground or human resources - to complete the project. However, on average since 2022, there have been about 774 productive operatives on site and the highest or peak that it reached was 1,260. Essentially, as the Minister just said in simple terms, BAM is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes, that is the information we have.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: They also said that since September 2023, BAM has, on average, achieved 64% of its planned progress. In fact, when they were before the Oireachtas committee last year, they said it was 67% so what they were telling us last week was pretty much the same information. They also told us that of the 3,128 rooms which BAM has submitted as complete to its standard, none were completed to the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: The €500 million figure would be slightly off but the figure of €2.2 billion is correct.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: Okay but it was slightly less than €500 million. The Minister was the Minister for Health during all of that so when he paints the picture of four years, of 14 completion dates that have come and gone, four times over the last 12 months where BAM has missed its completion date, not providing the human resources to get the project done, no room of standard that is complete, and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I do not have an exact date but in the last number of weeks. It was after I met the board. With regard to the sequence of events I have not got the exact date.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: So it was in the last week. I do not need the exact date.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I will give the committee a quick sequence of events so that colleagues have it. The Department was contacted by the board to signal that BAM had moved its completion date. Ms Ross and I met and on the back of that meeting I met with the full board. On the back of that I wrote to the Taoiseach, and subsequent to that I wrote to the chair of Royal BAM group.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: Okay, this was a number of weeks ago.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: Yes. This is all in the last two months or so.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: When the Minister met them did he put it to them that they had missed their completion date 14 times, and four times in the last 12 months?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: I did.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

David Cullinane: Did they accept that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health: National Children’s Hospital: Discussion (9 Oct 2024)

Stephen Donnelly: They did not disagree.