Building work on children’s hospital to start by year end

THE first sod will be turned at the site of the new Children’s Hospital of Ireland by the year end, with the facility scheduled to open in late 2014, the head of the building project said yesterday.

Chief executive of the hospital’s development board, Eilish Hardiman, said building work on the site beside the Mater Hospital in Dublin would cost “significantly less” than the original estimate of €750m.

Three Dublin hospitals will transfer patients to the 16-storey facility – Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Crumlin, Temple Street and the National Children’s Hospital in Tallaght.