Children’s hospital - Enough talk, it’s time to get building

The decision to locate the national children’s hospital at Dublin’s St James’s Hospital is to be welcomed, not because the location is head and shoulders above other options but because this saga has dragged on for far too long.

It has unfortunately, and too often, shown Ireland in its very worst light. The project was mooted in 1993. Nine health ministers have held office since then.

The initial decision to locate the facility at the Mater site was undermined by accusations of political interference, though they were never proven. Successive governments have spent something approaching €30m trying to make the constricted Mater site seem attractive, or at least viable. Though that site was endorsed by several reports, that money is gone and there is little or nothing to show for it except missed deadlines and a medical community divided.