Health Minister has to explain financial and legal levers to hold Bam to account - Sinn Féin health spokesperson

Vivienne Clarke

Sinn Féin’s health spokesperson, David Cullinane, has called on the Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, to explain what “financial and legal levers” exist within the contract to hold the builder of the Children’s Hospital, Bam, to account.

“The current Minister, rather than pointing the finger and having a public row with the contractor, needs to explain what financial and what legal levers exist within the contract to hold the contractor to account, because it's now going to be 2027 at the very earliest before a single child is treated in the hospital,” he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.

“Unfortunately, we've seen all of this before with the previous Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly. We know that there are problems with the contract. I have accepted that for a long time. So obviously, there is a responsibility on the contractor to complete the job and the completion of the hospital."

Mr Cullinane said there is also a responsibility on the Minister and the Government.

“But there is also a responsibility on the Minister and indeed on this government. We have to go back to the original contract that was signed by Simon Harris. We know that contract was deeply flawed. It was a build-as-you-go hospital. That contract has led to cost overruns where the original estimation is now 500 per cent more than the original estimations.

"We've had 14 completion dates which have come and gone. The most recent completion date that was given was October of this year, and there is no hope that that completion date will be met; it's most likely now going to be next year.

“The first thing that has to happen is that the hospital has to be completed and handed over to the State. Then there is a commissioning process, which takes between 12 months and 18 months. So it's going to be, at the very earliest now, the middle of 2027, in my view, before a single child is treated in the hospital. And that is five years later than was first announced. So obviously, this is a crisis. It's a deeply flawed contract," Mr Cullinane said.

“What we're seeing here is a Minister trying to flex her muscles, putting all of the responsibility back on the contractor. And of course, there is responsibility on the contractor. But nobody seems to want to take responsibility for anything, not the contractor or not the government.

“If it is the case, that along with all the other flaws in the contract which led to all of these missed completion dates, which led to the ballooning costs, that the levers simply don't exist, whether they're financial levers or legal levers to hold a contractor to account within the contract, that is also on Simon Harris and that's also on the government," he said.

“It isn't going to speed it up, but there has to be accountability and the government have to be honest about where we are with this project because all we're getting and what the public is getting is false dates one after the other. There has to be honesty from the Minister in relation to what options are open to the State to hold the contractor to account. It certainly doesn't serve any purpose that we have this very unseemly row time and again between the contractor and the Government.”