Children's hospital to be built by 2012

The Health Service Executive (HSE) has said the controversial new national paediatric hospital, to be developed on the site of the Mater in Dublin, is expected to be completed by 2012.

In a recent reply to a parliamentary question tabled by Fine Gael deputy Brian Hayes, the HSE said that 2012 was the target date for the completion of construction work and the start of commissioning of the new facility.

It also said the new adult hospital to be developed on the Mater campus would be partially occupied by the final quarter of 2010.

This will involve the development of a new A&E unit, new outpatient departments, new theatres and new intensive care facilities.

The HSE draft capital plan for 2008 proposed allocating about €30 million to the new Mater adult hospital project this year. It also earmarked €5 million for work on the new national paediatric hospital.

Official Department of Health documents revealed earlier this year that the board of the new hospital believed that the facility could cost €800 million-€1 billion to construct.

Last September, the chairman of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board, Philip Lynch, told Minister for Health Mary Harney that it wanted to obtain a clear commitment from the Government "to provide the scale of funding of the order of €800 million-€1 billion for the capital element".

He said this matter was of fundamental concern to the board.

Following a meeting with Ms Harney in November, Mr Lynch wrote to the Department of Health to confirm that both sides were agreed that the estimate for the new children's hospital was €800 million but that every effort would be made to deliver it for less than that price.

"Where possible, the board will pursue the possibility of obtaining funding from philanthropic interests including any contribution from the sale of the Crumlin site. However, it was equally re-assuring to hear that the Government would fund the Children's Hospital without such philanthropic contributions," he said.

On November 21st last the Minister told the board that the provision of a world-class hospital for the children of Ireland was one of her top capital priorities.

"I want to reiterate the assurance that I have already given that the level of capital funding required from the Exchequer to develop the new hospital will be provided by the Government," she said.

"I also want to acknowledge the prospect of the board securing significant funding from philanthropic interests towards the cost of the development," she added.

The planned development of a new unified national paediatric hospital on a site at the Mater hospital in Dublin has been one of the most controversial decisions in healthcare in the Republic in recent years.

Under plans which were approved by the Cabinet in June 2006, the three existing paediatric hospitals in Dublin - Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Temple Street and Tallaght - would move to the new facility at the Mater site.

However, staff at Crumlin have been extremely unhappy at the decision to locate the new hospital at the Mater. They have argued that the new facility should be developed on a greenfield site, preferably alongside a maternity hospital.

Critics of the Mater site have also contended that it is too small and would be badly affected by traffic congestion.