Smyth says offer to build hospital still stands

SOLICITOR and multi-millionaire businessman, Noel Smyth, has repeated his proposals to fund the construction of the proposed new national children’s hospital, regardless of its location.

The property developer said at the weekend that the offer to the Health Service Executive (HSE) to build the much-needed facility remained on the table.

Mr Smyth said he and his consortium would be willing to build the new hospital, even if it is located at the Mater Hospital in central Dublin.

The controversial choice of the Mater for the new facility by a Government task force resulted in two of the country’s three main children’s hospitals — Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin and the National Children’s Hospital in Tallaght — withdrawing from talks on the proposed move to the Mater earlier this year.

However, Mr Smyth stressed that his proposal was conditional on the location getting the support of all three existing hospitals.

Speaking on both RTÉ and TV3 over the weekend, Mr Smyth expressed his preference that the new hospital would be located beside an adult hospital, including a maternity unit, as recommended in a report by consultants group, McKinsey. He also called on the consultants to be brought back to review the choice of location for the proposed hospital.

He revealed that the HSE indicated at a meeting last Tuesday that it was still interested in examining “altruistic offers” to fund the building of the hospital.

The businessman pointed out that he had already secured a 300 million loan agreement to build the hospital. He disclosed that he had initially approached Our Lady’s with an offer to replace the existing hospital with a new facility on the same site. However, such a proposal was overtaken by the Government’s decision to consolidate existing services in one hospital.

Mr Smyth declined to comment directly on his personal views about the suitability of the Mater site.

The solicitor has a special interest in Our Lady’s because of personal reasons.

Mr Smyth praised staff at the Crumlin hospital for the way they treated his young nephew, Luke, who spent four years attending Our Lady’s before losing his fight against leukaemia.