Q&A: What's the problem with the new National Maternity Hospital plan?

The location for the new €1bn hospital was agreed in 2016, at a site adjacent to the current campus of St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin. File picture

A new National Maternity Hospital was first mooted as far back as 1998, to replace the existing facility at Holles St on Dublin’s southside.

The location for the new €1bn hospital was agreed in 2016, at a site adjacent to the current campus of St Vincent’s Hospital, also on the southside of the capital. The idea was to boost the medical outcomes of the maternity hospital by having it adjacent to an established acute treatment facility.