Rabbitte queries Mater timing

The Taoiseach had been congratulated on the choice of the Mater hospital as the location for the new national children's hospital, before a report on the proposed site was issued, Labour leader Pat Rabbitte told the Dáil.

Stressing that he was not alleging any Government interference, Mr Rabbitte said that in September 2005, the chairman of the Mater board of governors, Des Lamont, had thanked the Taoiseach at an event there for pledging to the Mater the national children's hospital.

"The significance of that is that it was three months before McKinsey reported and five months before the process was put in place to select the site."

Mr Rabbitte said he was not questioning the Government's right to make the decision.

He said there were serious questions in the minds of parents in his Dublin South West constituency, in the huge catchment area covered by Tallaght hospital, among the board of governors of Crumlin hospital and among expert consultants, about the wisdom of a single campus and a single tertiary hospital solution in the centre of a crowded city.

Tánaiste Michael McDowell, who was taking the Order of Business in the absence of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, said he was satisfied that the selection process was objective and without interference.