An "urgent request" has been made to the Government by Church of Ireland members in the Dublin and Glendalough dioceses to reconsider its decision on locating the National Children's Hospital at the Mater site, and to examine the option of two sites to provide a service for both the north and south of Dublin.
The proposal for such a request was an amendment to a strongly-worded motion on the Tallaght hospital issue, passed unanimously at the Dublin and Glendalough diocesan synods in Dundrum, Co Dublin last night.
The motion endorsed the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, Dr John Neill, in his remarks on the failure of the Government to honour its commitments to Tallaght hospital.
In his presidential address to the synod on Monday, Dr Neill warned that Tallaght hospital, of which he is president and which offers medical treatments that are "not subject to the ethical demands of any one religious tradition" (as is the case in other Irish hospitals), was in danger of being downgraded.
Where the future of the hospital was concerned, he said "it was the people of Ireland and not just the Protestant community that should be making their case loud and clear".
Last night's motion strongly endorsed Dr Neill "in seeking to ensure the fullest development of the (Tallaght) hospital including the paediatric services of the National Children's Hospital".
Speaking to The Irish Times, the motion's proposer, Tom Jackson, from Killiney, said if the Government had fulfilled its commitments to Tallaght it would have had services the HSE said it lacked when giving reasons for deciding to locate a new National Children's Hospital at the Mater site. He said that, unlike the Mater, Tallaght had 20 acres available for the development of a maternity, children's and adult hospital on one site.
It was also accessible to more of Ireland, including Dublin, because of its location, and had in its hinterland a population probably equal to Cork city, and certainly that of Limerick, he said.
The Mater site was totally unsuitable for parking and the proposal to locate the National Children's Hospital there had been rejected by the consultants at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Mr Jackson added.