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TÁNAISTE SIMON HARRIS has said that the State will “robustly push back” against any additional cost demands from the developer of the National Children’s Hospital.
The relationship between the construction firm BAM, the board overseeing the hospital construction and the state has soured over the years over the delayed project.
The board overseeing the hospital’s development accused BAM last year of having a “complete disregard for sick children”.
There are reports that BAM is seeking an additional €100m in costs but Harris this morning told reporters: “The developer can look for whatever the developer wants, but the State is going to continue to robustly push back.”
He added that people need to be “careful when quoting figures that the developer is looking for in additional claims”.
Harris remarked that “so many claims that have been lodged by the developer have not been paid out, have been found not to be valid”.
“I saw recent figures that show only a tiny fraction of claims lodged by the developer have actually been found to have validity and the state will continue to push that back,” said Harris.
The Tánaiste further remarked that he wants the “taxpayers of this country to know that the State has successfully pushed back many claims to date and will continue to adopt that approach”.
Harris added that the “plan is still to have this hospital handed over to the State having completed its work in June of this year” and that the hospital is “in the final stages of its completion in terms of its construction”.
However, he said there will then be a “commissioning period of time that needs to happen as efficiently as possible”.
“There has to be the clinical kit out of the hospital, and that’s a vital part of the commissioning work that needs to take place,” said Harris.
“But we’re now within touching distance of this National Children’s Hospital finally being available for the children of this country,” he added.
The Journal yesterday reported that this “commissioning period” could take at least six months, which would result in the hospital not being fully open until 2026.
A briefing note from the Department of Health to the new Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill states that moving patients from the numerous children’s hospitals cannot be undertaken in winter due to “clinical risks”.
“In order to minimise clinical risk to sick children, migration must be carried out when emergency activity is at its quietest and elective activity must be reduced so that there is the minimal number of patients to be transferred and the maximum number of staff available to achieve this safely,” the department added.
In addition to moving patients, this commissioning will also include moving in machinery, getting labs operational and carrying out workforce training for three hospital teams of up to 4,000 staff, who will all be working under a new digital health system.
It is understood that the timeframe between July and October is most likely too tight to get the commissioning work completed, however the timeline will be scrutinised in the coming weeks to see if acceleration can be achieved.
It is understood that spring 2026 is now seen as the optimum time for the large-scale logistical plan.
“With over 4,600 clinical spaces, this will be a complex phase, which will take at least six months,” the department said.
-With additional reporting from Christina Finn
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Fair play young dude
We need to teach coding at a young age. Take religion out of primary school and introduce very basic programming to kids. It should also be availible for junior and leaving cert. I am learning C# at the moment and really regret i have not learnt to code at a younger age.
The poor kid , he is very young to be getting into the dog eat dog. We idolise tech “leaders” so much today , I hope he isn’t chewed up in the cogs
Is there an adult version of coder dojo anywhere? Don’t know if I would like to do it as a career but wouldn’t mind learning the basics. Coder dojo seems like a nice way to do that but don’t wana be shown up by a bunch of ten ye old! ;-)
Plenty of courses you can pay for. I’m not sure how many people will dedicate time to teach adults for free. Although there’s a huge amount of free courses online… Do a google for “mooc” to get started.
Didn’t realise coder dojo was free. Wouldn’t mind paying for a few casual classes but going as far as a night course seems a big commitment considering I know some people who did entire college courses and hated every minute. Will try some of the online options. Cheers.
edx.org have a brilliant free online course from Harvard cs50 i think its what it is called. Also FAS e collage do a great “Changing yyour carer to the I.T sector online. It prepares you to get a MTA qualification in Networking, Software development, or Database analysis. Its free if you are on job seekers and its not too expensive if you are working. I am doing both courses and they compliment each other very well.
Have a look at night classes in your local community schools. Usually quite cheap and no long term commitment. I think usually 8-10 weeks at about a tenner a week.
Best of luck, I really hope it works out for you.
And forget about people who did comp sci and hated it. Massive overgeneralisation here on my part but I find they only did comp sci ‘cos computers are easy’ without knowing what they were getting into. If you have the interest then you already have a much better chance of success than them!
Give this a lash Barry, http://www.codecademy.com
Maybe skip the HTML/CSS course and try the Javascript or one of the others first.
Thanks for all the help. Loads to look at there. Maybe the first thing I’ll do when I’m able to program is create an education comparison site! There’s so much out there, some offering certifications some just the training and knowledge.
In people’s experience if you can show that you can code and write your own programs/apps/websites whatever, do employers look for proof of training? Does someone in the workplace who may be just as able and “self” taught earn as much as someone who has a degree or diploma or does the lack of paperwork hold people back?
It’s helpful to have certifications in order to get the foot in the door but not essential. I’m self-learned and am an engineer in one of the biggest IT companies in the world. But I started at a technician in PC World.
There are also one year conversion courses you can do that might be worth looking into if you already have a level 8 degree in another area and are in the position where you can spend a year in college. As far as I know most of them are being paid for by the government because there’s a skills shortage.
Codecademy.com go learn a language… I bet you enjoy it and I bet you will want to learn more!!
This is a new one- I was expecting to read The Journal comments section had won the Nigerian lotto!!
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Zonal Overseer(C.A.C) Credit Union
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