Decision due today on children's hospital
A decision on the location of the new long-awaited National Children’s Hospital is due to be announced today.
Health Minister James Reilly will bring his top choice to his Government colleagues around the Cabinet table, who he hopes will back his recommendation.
It is understood the preferred option is next to St James’s Hospital in Dublin’s south inner city, which would be linked with the nearby Coombe women’s and maternity hospital.
Construction of the new facility, which will merge the three children’s hospitals – Temple Street, Crumlin and Tallaght – was originally due to start in 2011 and open by late 2014.
But the controversial project suffered several setbacks, which led to a review by an international taskforce and the resignation of a number of key board members appointed to lead the build.
Dr Reilly yesterday confirmed an updated 2016 timescale is also “no longer achievable” after the original Mater Hospital site was refused by planners earlier this year.
However, the minister rejected claims there will be a further two-and-a-half-year delay, and added costs of up to €140m, if the new hospital is moved to another site.
In February An Bord Pleanála rejected proposals to build the €650m facility next to the Mater, arguing the building – at 15 storeys, 74 metres high and over 100,000 square feet – was too large and out of place in the north Dublin Georgian city skyline.
An expert group, spearheaded by former Health Service Executive chief Frank Dolphin, was appointed to consider different locations for the state-of-the-art facility.
They included co-location with St James’ Hospital, Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown, Tallaght Hospital or downsizing the original plans for the Mater, or a new build on a site in Belcamp in Dr Reilly’s north Dublin constituency or at Newlands Cross in the west of the city.
The group, made up of planning experts, doctors and architects, did not rank the different sites considered, but left the health minister to consider observations made in the report.
The site selection will be made some six years after the 2006 McKinsey Report first stated the preferred option for a new children’s hospital would be in co-location with an adult site.
