Taoiseach Bertie Ahern claimed yesterday he had had certain misgivings about the siting of the new national children's hospital on the campus of Dublin's Mater hospital.
The controversial decision, backed by Government, will see the three existing children's hospitals in Dublin - Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Temple Street Children's Hospital and the National Children's Hospital in Tallaght - merged on the Mater campus to form the new children's hospital.
However, Tallaght and Crumlin hospitals are indicating they will not co-operate with the plan.
Chairman of Tallaght hospital board Alan Gillis said yesterday that the hospital would not co-operate with the plan unless it was altered.
In doing so he was following in the footsteps of the board of Crumlin hospital, which last week said it could not co-operate with the plan either.
Speaking while on a visit to Riyadh, Mr Ahern said: "I would hope that this could be resolved."
He rejected suggestions of political interference in the decision which led to the new hospital being planned for the Mater site in his own constituency.
He said he did not welcome the decision at the time because he saw it as possibly delaying developments at the Mater.
"Like a lot of things in life, people wanted a national children's hospital. Personally, I saw that as an issue that would delay the development of the Mater hospital . . . it certainly wasn't something that I welcomed at the time because I saw it as a delay. And an independent process of international standing made the decision - and then people are unhappy where it is. From my point of view, I would like to see it resolved as quickly as possible," he said.
"Hopefully, if the people want to see a national children's hospital, they will work to see it going ahead. But in the meantime, I hope it doesn't any further delay the Mater public hospital development," he said, adding that this development had already been delayed now by 15 months.
"I said I had misgivings about the whole idea of a single hospital, because I was afraid that it would delay the Mater hospital development because it got tied into that. The Mater hospital development was supposed to start in late 2005 but it didn't because of this particular development ... What I wanted to see was the Mater public development to get under way as quickly as possible and that is what I still want to do."
The board of Tallaght hospital is to meet on Thursday week to decide whether or not to co-operate with the move to the Mater. It hopes to meet Mr Ahern and Minister for Health Mary Harney prior to that. Ms Harney has already said the Government is determined to proceed with the development on the Mater site.
However, Mr Gillis said on RTÉ radio yesterday that Tallaght was proposing the new hospital be built across two sites rather than one. It could have a single governance structure.
Meanwhile, the board of Crumlin hospital, which last week said it could not co-operate with the move to the Mater, is to meet again in a week's time.