BAM Contractors, the main construction firm building the National Children’s Hospital (NCH), hit out at “ill-informed” commentary about delays and cost overruns on the multibillion-euro project as it reported that its pretax profit soared 79 per cent last year.
Still, the company – a unit of Dutch construction services giant Royal BAM Group – remains “confident” it will deliver a “world-class facility” when it is finally opened, it said in its latest annual financial statement, filed with the Companies Registration Office this week.
Pretax profits rose to €21.3 million, even as revenues slumped by a third to €468.2 million, as the business focused on “fewer, but better-quality projects”, it said. The NCH is its most significant current contract.
“Despite recent negative publicity on the cost and completion date for the NCH, a lot of which is ill-informed and fails to mention the rework necessitated by thousands of design changes by the client as the root cause of most of the delays and cost overruns, we are confident of delivering a world-class facility upon completion of the hospital,” BAM said.
“Maintaining the project’s strong safety record and completing the works remain key objectives for the group, along with resolution of the outstanding variations and claims.”
The estimated cost of building the NCH has soared to €2.2 billion from €650 million in 2015, when an initial planning application was lodged, and close to €1 billion when BAM was officially awarded the contract in 2017 by the Government.
While the hospital was originally scheduled to be built by 2020, the latest completion deadline committed to by BAM is June next year. BAM said that much of the delays have been down to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and a series of design changes by the client.
Still, there are concerns that it could be 2026 before it is opened, given the necessary subsequent fit-out time for the building.
The National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) said in September that BAM had “shifted its cited substantial completion date for the new children’s hospital 14 times since it commenced above ground works in early 2019″.
However, BAM confirmed in its latest financial report that it had been successful in securing an additional €107.6 million this year from the State as part of an independent conciliation process.
The Irish Times reported the sum in May, stemming from delays in the project until the early part of last year which could be attributed to the client.
The Dáil’s public spending watchdog, the Public Accounts Committee, made a failed attempt to grill members of the NPHDB and Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) before the Dáil was dissolved last Friday, as key officials from the two organisations were unavailable to attend.
Meanwhile, BAM, whose average number of employees fell to 744 last year from 825 in 2022, said its order book at the end of 2023 “indicated another solid level of activity for 2024 and 2025″.
“Overall, in 2023 we had good performance across the combined property, facilities maintenance, civil and building business units,” it said.
The Irish business paid a €5 million dividend to its parent last year. Total reserves in its profit and loss account rose almost 8 per cent last year to €107.9 million.
Cash at bank remained strong at €81 .6 million at the end of December, albeit down from €98.5 million a year earlier, providing what the company described as “a solid base to take advantage of new opportunities as they arise both at home and abroad”.
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