Children’s hospital - A welcome review

IT is unavoidable but frustrating that the debate about the new national children’s hospital be re-opened.

The decision to build at the Mater Hospital site in Dublin city centre raised too many questions, especially about cost and access. There were suggestions too that political intervention influenced the decision.

Yesterday’s statement from John Gallagher, chair of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board, that the Mater campus is “both capable of being and suitable to be the site of the new hospital” is a good starting point for the discussion. The board’s new report on the project was given to the Health Minister James Reilly yesterday.

This project has dragged on for too long and has been the subject of irreconcilable differences between some of the most respected and capable professionals. An early and final decision is needed because the priority must be providing the service Ireland’s sick children need.