The new National Maternity Hospital at Elm Park in Dublin can now proceed to construction. The Government approved the project on 20 October 2026, clearing the HSE to appoint John Sisk & Son as main contractor and Designer Group for mechanical and electrical works, within an approved budget of €1.861 billion excluding VAT.
The decision was announced by the Minister for Health in a Department of Health press release. It allows the HSE to pass Approval Gate 3 of the Government's Infrastructure Guidelines and to award the contracts in the coming weeks. Main construction is scheduled to begin in early 2027, with completion expected in 2033.
- Decision: Government approval on 20 October 2026 for the new National Maternity Hospital (NMH) to proceed to construction.
- Budget: €1.861 billion excluding VAT and RCT, set at a high-confidence (P90) level.
- Contractors: John Sisk & Son (main contractor) and Designer Group (mechanical and electrical works).
- Building: seven storeys, over 54,000 m², 244 single en-suite rooms, five operating theatres and 24 birthing rooms.
- Capacity: up to 10,000 births a year.
- Timeline: main construction from early 2027, completion expected in 2033.
What the Government approved
The approval lets the HSE sign contracts with John Sisk & Son as main contractor and appoint Designer Group as reserved specialist contractor for mechanical and electrical works. Both firms were chosen through a competitive procurement process and have worked under a Pre-Construction Services Agreement with the HSE since October 2025.
During that pre-construction phase, the contractors, design team, HSE and hospital stakeholders checked the design, the construction programme, the delivery arrangements and the project risks. The Department says the design was approved at each project stage and externally reviewed before tender, which reduces the chance of changes later. Enabling and preliminary works on the St Vincent's University Hospital campus are nearing completion.
"Today's decision by Government marks a major milestone in the delivery of the new National Maternity Hospital and the most significant investment in women's healthcare infrastructure in the history of the State," the Minister for Health said.
The €1.861 billion budget
The Government sanctioned a capital budget of €1.861 billion, excluding VAT and Relevant Contracts Tax. It covers construction, the design team, equipping, other capital delivery, ICT investment, contingency and inflation allowances. The Department describes it as the largest single capital investment in women's healthcare infrastructure in the history of the State.
The figure is set at the P90 level, meaning a high-confidence funding requirement that includes quantified project risks. The project has a Benefit to Cost Ratio of 3.55: for every €1 invested, the Department estimates €3.55 in health and societal benefits.
The budget does not cover policy or scope changes made after the contract is signed, or global market swings beyond the statistically probable worst cases already allowed for. Severe stress scenarios, such as several years of hyperinflation or every major contractual risk materialising at once, are outside the budget allowances.
What the new hospital will have
The new NMH will be a seven-storey building of over 54,000 m², twice the size of the current hospital at Holles Street, with direct links to adult critical care and other facilities at St Vincent's University Hospital. It is designed for 10,000 births a year.
| Feature | New NMH at Elm Park |
|---|---|
| Floor area | Over 54,000 m² (twice the size of Holles Street) |
| Beds | 244, all in single en-suite rooms |
| Operating theatres | 5 |
| Birthing rooms | 24 |
| Births per year | Capacity for 10,000 |
| Critical care | Direct access from NMH theatres and high-dependency unit to theatres and ICU at St Vincent's |
| Budget | €1.861 billion excluding VAT and RCT |
| Completion | Expected 2033 |
Source: Department of Health press release, 20 October 2026.
Beyond maternity and neonatal care, the hospital will house a specialist menopause service, an endometriosis service, urodynamics services, a regional fertility hub and an assisted reproduction therapy laboratory. It will also have early pregnancy foetal assessment and ultrasound facilities, more space for colposcopy, ambulatory gynaecology and urogynaecology, and training and education areas for healthcare staff. "Soft spots" are built in to allow key clinical areas to expand later.
The new hospital will serve Dublin and the South-East and act as the national tertiary referral centre for the most complex maternity cases from across the country. The two hospitals will share laboratories, sterile services and patient and staff catering.
Why co-location with St Vincent's matters
The Department says placing the NMH beside St Vincent's University Hospital will give women and newborn babies, especially those with complex clinical needs, immediate access to specialist adult care. It lists faster access to emergency and critical care, safer management of complex pregnancies and births, fewer transfers between hospitals, and better infection prevention, privacy and inpatient conditions.
Professor Jennifer Walsh, Master of The NMH, said the new hospital would give patients "the privacy, space and dignity they expect and deserve" and staff "facilities designed to meet the needs of modern healthcare". The NMH at Holles Street will keep providing care while the new building is under construction.
The NMH today
HSE Chief Executive Anne O'Connor said more than 7,000 babies were born at The NMH in 2025. The hospital recorded over 128,000 outpatient attendances and cared for more than 1,300 babies in its Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. She said care at the hospital is "of the highest standard despite infrastructural constraints, restricted number of patient beds and outdated facilities".
The contractor and the road to construction
John Sisk & Son describes itself as an Irish family-owned building and engineering group with more than 3,500 staff in Ireland, the UK and Europe, and as Ireland's largest contractor. Its recent healthcare work includes a 96-bed inpatient block at University Hospital Limerick, the Surgical Hub in Swords, seven Community Nursing Units with the HSE, and the Rock Wing at the Mater Hospital, delivered during the pandemic. It is currently building the Children's Cancer Centre at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.
The Government approved the project to go to tender in July 2023. The contractors were then selected and signed the Pre-Construction Services Agreement in October 2025. With this approval, the next steps are contract signing in the coming weeks and the start of main construction in early 2027.
For more on women's health in Ireland, see our report on Trinity's new women's and reproductive health research centre and our coverage of the Budget 2027 health allocation.
Sources
- Department of Health, press release "Minister for Health welcomes Government approval for New National Maternity Hospital to proceed to construction", 20 October 2026
- gov.ie: Cabinet approval for the new National Maternity Hospital project to go to tender, July 2023
- The National Maternity Hospital
Cover image: visualisation of the new National Maternity Hospital on the St Vincent's University Hospital campus at Elm Park, Dublin. Base aerial imagery: Google Earth.
