‘We will not take that step again,’ minister says of children’s hospital contractBy Gráinne Ní Aodha, Press AssociationThe health minister has said a similar contract underpinning the long-delayed construction of the National Children’s Hospital would not be used again. Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said that she hoped that the hospital could accept patients from December this year if the hospital construction was completed by April. She made the comments to the Oireachtas health committee on Wednesday. Asked by committee chairman Padraig Rice whether she was confident the April 30th deadline would be met by the main contractor BAM, Carroll MacNeill said “that’s up to BAM”. “We’ve had a very tight financial performance in 2025 that is different to what we’ve experienced before,” she said.

Source: Irish Independent February 11, 2026 19:38 UTC