The construction company building the new National Children’s Hospital was welcomed legal action taken against it by the board responsible for developing it.

The National Paediatric Hospital Development Board today began a High Court action against BAM Construction.

It filed the legal papers after in-house efforts to reach agreement over the dispute ended with no resolution.

The dispute centres on the validity of an instruction given by the board to BAM to begin Phase B of the development in January last year.

Phase B involved above ground works at the St James’s Hospital site.

In a statement this afternoon, the board said it was left with no choice but to take legal action in order to “rigorously defend the public purse.”

In a statement this evening, BAM said that a 2017 contract required the board to provide it with a complete fully co-ordinated designed before PHASE B works could begin.
It claimed that was never provided, noting that as of today, “the design is still not complete.”

It said it welcomes the fact that the matter will now be subjected to what it described as a “proper and careful analysis, and ultimately resolution, by the courts.”

With reporting by Frank Greaney