Plans by the Government and the Health Services Executive (HSE) to locate a new national children's hospital at the Mater site in Dublin were being "steam-rolled ahead" without proper consideration, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Rev John Neill, has said.
He described the plans as ill-conceived and said they arose from a flawed process which was not good for children.
"The Government and the HSE must keep their focus on children nationwide if the roll-out of the tertiary paediatric services for Ireland is to be successful," he said.
Speaking at a fundraising event for the National Children's Hospital at Tallaght, Dublin, yesterday, the archbishop, who is president at Tallaght hospital, suggested an amendment to the proposed single-site hospital at the Mater.
"There could be a system of governance between the Mater site on the north side of Dublin and the Tallaght site on the south side close to the M50 that would be better for the children of this country."
He felt "the relationship maintained between the National Children's Hospital, Tallaght, and Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin has proved that two sites can share the services required in the treatment of ill children".
It was his view "and this is shared by the Adelaide, Meath and National Children's Hospital, that the plan for the tertiary paediatrics hospital on the Mater site is being steamrolled ahead without proper consideration. The plan is ill-conceived, arises out of a flawed process and it is not good for our children".
The HSE and Government "have been harshly criticised for the decision to locate the tertiary paediatrics hospital on the same site as the Mater hospital as this move will see Our Lady's Hospital in Crumlin and, potentially, the National Children's Hospital, Tallaght, shutting down."
In the Dáil last Wednesday Minister for Health Mary Harney insisted there had been adequate consultation in choosing the Mater hospital site as the location for a new children's hospital.
She said the paediatric community had been consulted after the publication of the McKinsey review and was enthusiastic about its findings.
"It is inevitable that some people will be upset when one hospital must be chosen from among several," she said. "What is important, however, is that for the first time we will have a world-class tertiary facility for sick children, collated with an adult teaching hospital and, subsequently, a maternity hospital that will deal with high-risk pregnancies."
Labour's Liz McManus said the decision to locate the hospital on the Mater site had effectively been rubbished by a Crumlin hospital report.