The government must take control of the disastrous delivery of the National Children\u2019s Hospital by issuing legal proceedings against BAM, according to Social Democrats health spokesperson P\u00e1draig Rice.<\/p>\n
Deputy Rice, who chairs the Oireachtas health committee, said:<\/p>\n
\u201cAt today\u2019s sitting of the health committee, Minister Carroll MacNeill said that she would not adopt a similar contractual structure to the one negotiated with BAM for the National Children\u2019s Hospital for future projects, which has been pushed back 17 times since its original completion date in 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis admission comes on foot of the Minister\u2019s latest PR stunt in standing up to BAM – in a letter provided ahead of today\u2019s sitting, she said that she has written again to the Chair of Royal BAM Group, BAM Ireland\u2019s parent company, expressing her dissatisfaction with the performance of BAM Ireland and calling for increased efforts to complete the long-delayed project.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Health Minister must stop drafting letters and start drafting court proceedings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis latest half-hearted intervention is taken from the same playbook as her predecessor Stephen Donnelly, who made a great play of his meeting with the chief executive of Royal BAM in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this much-vaunted meeting, the former Minister was given a commitment that the hospital would be complete by June 2025 \u2013 yet here we are in February 2026, still waiting.<\/p>\n
\u201cAccording to Minister Carroll MacNeill, she has been told that there is now more direct involvement from senior representatives from Royal BAM and BAM UK and Ireland – however, the number of workers on-site continues to drop.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn December 2024, there were over 900 productive staff on site; a year later, there were just over 500 productive staff on site; as of the last week in January 2026, that number dropped by a further 82 workers, a reduction of over 15%.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s abundantly clear that BAM\u2019s assurances lack any credibility at this stage – the government must explore issuing proceedings against BAM for repeatedly failing to fulfil its contractual obligations and to get a commitment of a minimum number of workers on site to finally push this project over the line.<\/p>\n
\u201cMinister Carroll MacNeil told the committee today that, essentially, there is nothing more she can do other than ask BAM to step up and deliver the hospital by the end of April this year – its 18th completion target.<\/p>\n
\u201cBAM must step up to the plate and take responsibility for its failures, but so must this government, which is being given the run around.\u201d<\/p>\n
February 11th, 2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The government must take control of the disastrous delivery of the National Children\u2019s Hospital by issuing legal proceedings against BAM, according to Social Democrats health spokesperson P\u00e1draig Rice. Deputy Rice, who chairs the Oireachtas health committee, said: \u201cAt today\u2019s sitting of the health committee, Minister Carroll MacNeill said that she would not adopt a similar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12553,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,649,642,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-national-childrens-hospital","category-padraig-rice","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n