OnoMatopee schreef op 13 oktober 2025 09:42:
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US construction giant was consulted on national children’s hospital ‘problems’
Irish-American Gilbane Building Company among largest healthcare contractors in United States
By Ronan McGreevy and Shauna Bowers – Mon, Oct 13, 2025
One of the largest construction companies in the United States was asked for its advice on the State’s national children’s hospital.
The Gilbane Building Company, founded by Famine-era emigrants from Co Leitrim, is one of the largest developers of healthcare facilities in the United States. It remains family-owned to this day.
The hospital has been beset by delays, escalating costs and disputes between the contractors and the hospital board for years.
Mr Gilbane said he had previously advised the Government on dealing with the numerous issues that have arisen between the contractor and the hospital board.
The latest estimate is that the budget will be €2.24 billion, and it is not due to open until June next year at the earliest.
Mr Gilbane said:
“The hospital was under construction and having problems. I am removed from the politics, from any decision making. And I have no champions within the system.
My goal would be to align the owners’ interests and the contractors’ interests and the architects’ interests in a three-legged stool.
The contractor has to be clearly accountable for the costs by defining the scope of the job so that the design reflects the cost that is guaranteed by the contractor.
The contractual relationship encourages that teamwork and ensures the methods to keep it on track have been established as best practices and ways to go.”
Gilbane Construction employs 3,300 people and had annual revenues in 2024 of $7.7 billion (€6.6 billion).
It is based almost exclusively in the United States, but did build the Kerry Group’s Global Technology and Innovation Centre in Naas 10 years ago.
He said the company would like to do more business in Ireland, but:
“Some of the methodology with which construction is procured in Ireland is not the way we do business. Nor did we do business for Kerry that way.
Unfortunately, in Ireland, some of the quantity surveying delivery ends up in litigation.
I’m going to be meeting with some of the trade contractors we worked with then, and I’m anxious to hear if things have changed.”
A public row broke out in August between Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill and the hospital’s main contractor BAM over the pace of work and the delivery of rooms to the required standards.