No manipulation of due process

I welcome the revised outline plan to develop a new Children’s Hospital. They undoubtedly need it, but we need to learn from recent history and sound a note of caution.

After the refusal of planning permission to build on the site of the Mater Hospital, panic and fear of the planning system have set in around the Cabinet table.

There seems to be a covert public relations campaign to sell the latest plan as a “done deal”. We cannot regard any development deal as “done” until it has gone through the planning process as laid down by law . The Minister must not turn a sod until then no matter how tempting the photo opportunity.