Construction company BAM has "categorically rejected" allegations of underperformance and underresourcing on the National Children's Hospital project.
This comes after the head of the National Pediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) warned that the cost of the hospital could top €2 billion due to delays which he blamed on BAM. He warned of "further slippage" if BAM does not change its behaviour.
Speaking in front of an Oireachtas Committee earlier today, NPHDB Chief Officer David Gunning said that BAM is not providing sufficient resources to deliver the hospital, resulting in low productivity. He said: "Based on BAM’s commitments, 3,000 rooms should have been completed by now. To date, 27 rooms have been deemed complete."
Mr Gunning explained: "The biggest driver of additional cost is delay... The Project is beset with delays and unless the behaviour of BAM is to change, we may suffer further delays into the period ahead."
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However, in a statement sent to Dublin Live, BAM has said it "categorically rejects any allegations of under-performance and under-resourcing on the New Children’s Hospital project".
The statement continued: "The firm and our work on the project is fully resourced for the planned work scope. Any suggestion that BAM is deliberately not committing adequate resources to the project or is in any way slowing down delivery of the hospital is untrue.
The construction company said the build phase was more than 85 per cent completed and confirmed it will submit a revised programme of works for the final stage of building the New Children’s Hospital next week.
The statement also said the programme submission process has been "complex" due to "the level of persistent change to the hospital’s design". It added: "Subject to any further changes outside of BAM’s control, this will set out our plan to complete and hand over this crucial facility.
"The Board is responsible for overall delivery; BAM is the build-only contractor and is neither the designer nor developer of this project.
"Revisions to the design of the hospital have been numerous, ongoing and challenging throughout and have added significantly to the required scope of work. The additional work generated as a result of these changes is not reflected in the Board’s assertion that BAM has only completed 67 per cent of its planned activity in the past year."
More than 600 rooms have been offered up by BAM for design team inspection, the statement continued. This number is "increasing by the week".
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