FG 'would review' children's hospital project

Fine Gael's Health spokesperson Dr James Reilly has said his party would review the National Children's Hospital project if it got into power.

The 16-storey facility is set to open in Dublin city centre in 2015 at a cost of €650m.

Some €400m of that will be funded by the Exchequer; the HSE will contribute €50m, while the car park and other facilities will raise €90m. However that still leaves a shortfall of €110m to be raised.

Dr O'Reilly, Fine Gael's deputy leader, said it is the wrong way to go about building a children's hospital.

"It will be reviewed," he said.

"It is necessary, and I want to see a national paediatric hospital, but in the current economic crisis I think it makes more sense to spend money on delivering care to those who need it now, rather than on some 'pie-in-the-sky' future development."