The cost of building so far on the new national children’s hospital in Dublin has passed €1 billion – with 18 months of work left before it is finished.
The hospital, located at St James’s Hospital, was due to cost €800 million, is now set to cost at least double that figure.
In 2018 it was estimated it would cost €1.4 billion but that figure is rising.
In correspondence to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the Department of Health confirmed €1 billion – or three quarters of the construction budget – had already been spent, according to The Irish Times.
A note to the PAC accompanying a letter from Department of Health secretary general Robert Watt says that a definitive update on the costs cannot be provided.
It says this is “due to the fact that we are talking about a live contract and speculation on any costs will be detrimental to the Development Board’s commercial engagements.”
The spending watchdog’s chair, Brian Stanley, told a meeting of PAC on Thursday that the latest update was concerning given the project potentially has another three years to go until completed.
The project at St James’s Hospital has suffered a number of delays, while the main contractor has made claims for additional costs of €500 million.
