Two of the children's hospitals affected by the new plan to centralise paediatric inpatient care in Dublin on one site yesterday welcomed the move.
The board of Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin said it was "unequivocally committed" to working closely with the taskforce set up to identify where the centralised services should be located so that a world-class hospital for Irish children could be provided without delay.
Temple Street, which was due to relocate to the Mater hospital campus, said the plan offered the opportunity for the creation of a world-class hospital for Ireland's sickest children. "The emphasis on the placement of the national children's tertiary hospital on the same site as an acute adult hospital is both welcome and significant," the CEO of Temple Street, Paul Cunniffe, said.
The plan to move Temple Street to the Mater has been on hold pending the review of paediatric services just published. Consultants at the hospital had, in a letter to last Saturday's Irish Times, described the HSE's decision to postpone the move as "sabotage". But one of those who signed that letter, Dr John Murphy, said last evening there was a lot more in the review than he expected. The important thing now was that a new hospital was provided quickly, he said.
He added he would be keen to see the Mater campus chosen as the site for the new hospital.
Tallaght Hospital, which houses the third children's hospital in Dublin - the National Children's Hospital - was not commenting yesterday.
Prof Jonathan OB Hourihane of the department of paediatrics and child health, University College Cork, said he hoped many of the key recommendations of the review were implemented as soon as possible, particularly related to consolidation of services "to prevent continuing inefficient use of scarce human and financial resources".
However, he expressed concern that "the national context does not appear to have received adequate attention".
The chief officer of the Council for Children's Hospitals Care, Helen Byrne, said the plan was long overdue. Heart Children Ireland and the Crumlin Hospital Action Group also welcomed it.
Political reaction was mixed. Independent TD Tony Gregory said if the plan was to end in the closure of Temple Street it would be "a social disaster" for the northside of Dublin.
Fine Gael's health spokesman Dr Liam Twomey said he supported the development of a centralised children's hospital providing specialist services for the whole country but the Temple Street development at the Mater should go ahead as a secondary paediatric hospital.
Labour's health spokeswoman, Liz McManus, said it was not certain that one single specialised hospital could adequately meet the needs of all children.