The Master of the Rotunda, Prof Sean Daly, has welcomed confirmation by the Minister for Health that the Dublin city-centre maternity hospital will not be moved to Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown.
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, Daly said the 2015 plan to co-locate the Rotunda and Connolly hospitals had been “a huge issue”.
“Everything has changed since the new reorganisation of the health services and we are now in the same integrated health area as the Mater and it has always made sense for us to have close clinical links with the Mater,“ he said.
With regard to concerns about the conservation of the Parnell Square area, Prof Daly said the original 18th-century site, which was part of a legacy from Bartholomew Moss, was always going to be a hospital site. That legacy had always been intended to look after the poor people of Dublin, and the Rotunda was an iconic part of the city of Dublin, he said. The new planning application would not be the same as the plan most recently rejected by An Coimisiún Pleanála, nor would it be larger.
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“We won’t submit the same one again,” he said. “We’ll work closely with our design team and we’re very conscious of the fact that conservation concerns were an issue. I do think Dublin City Council were very conscious of this too. They asked when we submitted the original planning back in December 2024, they requested changes to be incorporated into the building to make it more like the west side of Parnell Square and that was actually done. But I do think that we will look at all options here.”
Daly said one of the design aspects they will be reconsidering will be “a lot of plant” on the roof of the building. “We may be able to relocate plant to a different part of the building if that’s required. But I suppose what I really would not wish to do is to submit a planning application for a building that doesn’t fulfil our clinical requirements and those are to ensure that we have 21st-century facilities to care for some of the most vulnerable women in the country.”
Daly also acknowledged that the location of the Rotunda Hospital’s sexual assault unit, which was the first in Europe when established 40 years ago, will need to be examined and might not form part of the new building.
Sinn Féin health spokesperson David Cullinane also welcomed the confirmation that the Rotunda would not be moved, and said the Minister for Health of “essentially” abandoned the plan “that never got off the ground.”
“The Minister has now put to bed an issue that has been essentially an anchor around the neck of the Rotunda Hospital for far too long. It has held back progress, held back investment, and obviously now there is clarity on the policy side that the Rotunda site will remain the site for the maternity hospital,” he told RTÉ radio’s Today with David McCullagh show.
“Obviously now the emphasis has to switch to the investment which is needed and the new development, which is crucial to ensure safe services for women in Dublin and in that area particularly.”
Cullinane called on “all of the stakeholders”, from the Health Service Executive, the Department of Health, the Rotunda and Dublin City Council to examine a new planning application. There also needed to be certainty about funding and “very clear time frames and timescales.” Cullinane also said that plans for the Rotunda’s sexual assault unit needed to be revamped.
