Madam, - Dr Pat Doherty's plea for Crumlin ( The Irish Times, December 5th) as the optimum site for the new national children's hospital is more depressing than he will know. The reason lies in the Public Private Partnership (PPP) procedure by which the hospital intended for the Mater site will be procured.
I worked for eight years in a hospital redevelopment by PPP in England overlapping the period when (then) minister for the environment Mr Dempsey was leading the acquisition of PPP expertise from England. The minister and his staff have not heeded advice and experience on PPPs then or since. I have been one of those trying, repeatedly, and to my cost, to broaden understanding of this powerful procurement device - of how not to use it and, yet, also, of how it can deliver a remarkable strategic advantage for dependant people if set up properly.
Let me say then that all but one of Dr Doherty's Mater concerns also characterised the PPP in which I worked a decade ago. Access to the chosen site was difficult. The chosen site was too small. There was no room or open space for patients, except on the roof. The number of beds was reduced despite growth in the dependant population. There was no room for expansion.
There was no scope for integrating desirable services within the space available for core activities.
The one concern of Dr Doherty which did not characterise our hospital redevelopment is time to deliver. By stipulating the wrong hospital site and a reduced number of beds, we got the hospital we deserved - obsolete and unsuited to purpose - on the declared date. And that is what our procurement process here in Ireland is set up to accomplish today: to procure projects which satisfy political short-term priorities quickly and regardless of current or future costs.
It is deeply disappointing that we do not use PPPs to deliver truly innovative solutions and that we do not demand that the National Development Finance Agency attends its primary purpose, which is to deliver value for public money. - Yours, etc,
MARTIN KAY, Lough Gur, Co Limerick.