Setback for national children’s hospital contractor Bam in near €100m bill dispute

A conciliator has rejected a near €100 million compensation claim by Bam over disputed costs incurred during construction of the long-delayed new national children’s hospital.The recommendation, which Bam can challenge in court, means the builder has failed to recover a large sum of additional costs that it said arose due to a “reflected ceiling plans issue”.The lead contractor on the hospital project, which is expected to cost more than €2.2 billion to complete, made a time-delay claim last year relating to the ceiling plans issue. Specific details of the claim have not been released. It could relate to ceiling-level elements of the project, such as lighting, ventilation, fire-safety equipment and other building services. READ MOREIn accounts published by Bam in June, company directors said they were confident a conciliator reviewing the claim would make a recommendation in its favour, “which the group believes will generate further value to compensate for the significant extra costs caused by this issue”.The conciliator has now made a recommendation on the claim and decided against Bam. The Irish Times understands the value of the claim by Bam was close to €100 million worth of additional expenses it said it had faced on the project.Bam still has the option to pursue legal action over the claim. When asked if the company would challenge the conciliator’s recommendation, a spokesman for Bam said: “Due to the confidential nature of the conciliation process, Bam has no comment to make.” A spokeswoman for the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board said it had no comment to make on the outcome of the process.“The conciliator has made a recommendation on the matter, but due to the confidential nature of the conciliation process, the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board has no comment to make on the outcome of that process.”Construction on the new national children’s hospital, which will be located on the St James’s Hospital campus, commenced in 2016. It was originally forecast that the project would cost €987 million to build, but the cost has since risen to more than €2.2 billion.Bam, as lead contractor, has made a number of claims relating to increased costs it has faced during the construction phase of the project. Last year, the hospital’s board said it was defending €880 million in claims.Under the hospital construction contract, contractor claims are resolved through a dispute management process, which may involve the employer’s representative, the project board, conciliation, adjudication and the courts.A spokeswoman for the hospital development board said: “As it stands, claims are now at all levels of the dispute management process.”Conciliators have previously found in favour of Bam on a number of large claims, including an extension of the completion date and an adjustment to the contract amount by €16.8 million.A separate dispute over a “global delay claim” resulted in a conciliator recommending an extension of 267 site working days and an increase in the contract sum by €107.6 million. Another claim was made over the manner in which inflation was to be calculated, and a conciliator recommended Bam was entitled to just over €19 million for inflation.Earlier this year, five sets of legal proceedings in relation to disputed bills were launched by Bam over the contract for the national children’s hospital and entered into the fast-track Commercial Court.Bam’s latest financial accounts said the project has continued to “present challenges from both an operational and financial perspective, and while the pace of design changes by the client slowed during 2025, they continued to be made and to adversely impact the project completion programme”.Last year, Bam’s turnover rose by 26 per cent to €535.3 million, while pretax profits were up 16 per cent to €27.4 million. The company’s directors approved payment of a €53 million dividend to its Dutch parent firm.