The chairman of the National Paediatric Hospital development board John Gallagher has welcomed the commitment within the programme for government to complete the planned National Children’s Hospital within the lifetime of the Government.
In a letter to the new Minister of Health James Reilly today, Mr Gallagher reiterated his view that the Mater campus is a suitable site for the new hospital.
Mr Gallagher said the letter follows a review of the project he undertook upon taking up the role of chairman of the board last October.
In a statement released this afternoon, he said he carried out the review so that the Minister and the public are given “a clear and unambiguous assessment of fact around the Hospital project…without reference to vested interests either within or beyond the sector."
He said welcomed Dr Reilly’s intention to conduct his own review in an attempt to resolve any “outstanding issues” but said it needs to be done so in a “very timely fashion, as any delay at this point will impact on the timeframe, and the cost of completing the hospital”.
Mr Gallagher also described reports in the media about the hospital over the last couple of days as “unhelpful”.
He said: “There seems to be particular confusion and even misinformation around a number of critical facts that underpin the rationale for the project in its current form.”
Earlier ,the former chairman of the board Philip Lynch said the project needs to be reviewed and that the Mater site was not “correct”.
Speaking on Morning Ireland today he said: "The location needs to be revisited in the interest of parents, sick children and the taxpayer."
Mr Lynch also said the decision to build the hospital on the Mater site was purely a political one. “I think it’s public knowledge that a deal was done on the site. And I believe that one year and a half into the project I could see that this was a political decision more than anything else.”
A spokesman for the former minister for health Mary Harney said she utterly rejects the suggestion to locate on the Mater site was politically motivated and that the process of adhering to the expert advice was “rigidly observed”.