HSE chose Mater location

IT was the Health Service Executive (HSE), not international medical experts, who recommended the new national children’s hospital be built on the Mater Hospital site in Dublin, a member of the health authority stressed yesterday.

HSE senior official Fionnuala Duffy, who is responsible for the planning and development of the acute hospital system, said the Joint HSE/Department of Health and Children Task Group used several international paediatricians as a “sounding board” to help them inform their decision-making.

“We obviously did not ask the international experts to recommend the site. That is what we were charged with doing as a task group. We just tapped into that expertise to inform us,” she said.