Pleading the cases at this point would take “at least six months”, cost over €500,000, and exert "significant pressure on the resources required on site to deliver the project”, lawyers for Bam submitted.
Six years into the litigation, the proceedings to resolve who bears the cost of overruns at the new children's hospital has become almost as unwieldy as the underlying dispute.
Bam has filed five new sets of proceedings against the development board of the National Children's Hospital. The multi-million euro claims include demands for inflation payments, extra steel costs, and delays.
The Dutch giant is selling its stake in multiple public infrastructure projects, but not in the National Children’s Hospital. Some of its motorway co-investors are making moves too.
BAM Ireland has long cemented its position as a construction giant. Its latest accounts, filed just weeks before it reignited its court case with the board of the National Children's Hospital, show a company with cash in its coffers and a bulging order book.
After 18 months of failed talks, contractor Bam reignited the dispute engulfing the National Children's Hospital in the Commercial Court under the heading "extremely urgent". Francesca Comyn looks at the contractual claims underpinning this monumental legal clash.
The National Children's Hospital has been beset by financial overruns and delays. Now a suit brought by the board of the hospital against the main contractor BAM has been re-entered into the Commercial list after settlement negotiations ran out of steam.
When a BAM-led team scooped a multi-million euro tender to refit public lighting, their rivals claimed the winning bid contained "grossly abnormal figures" and should have been disqualified. The court case goes to the heart of this controversial aspect of procurement.
The Waterford toll road has underperformed since it opened in 2009 as a public-private partnership. Now it has new owners and wants creditors to write down millions in secured debt.
BAM Ireland has long been a profit centre for its Dutch owner. Last year, however, it made a loss as a result of Covid shutdowns and its ongoing role as lead contractor with the National Children’s Hospital.
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