Eamonn Coghlan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Following on from what Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell said and her welcome for Mr. James Kirwan, it is apropos that he is here today.

I also welcome the Cabinet's signing off on the blueprint for the new national paediatric hospital, and I emphasise that is a paediatric hospital. I understand that the next phase is to select the design team with construction to commence in the spring of 2015 which is only a number of months away. In 2018 the hospital is scheduled to be opened almost 20 years after the idea was first mooted.

There will be continuous debate and opinions on whether St. James's is the appropriate location or whether the hospital should be located somewhere else. There will be debates on whether it is the right design, and there will be debates on the traffic and so forth. It is almost ten years since the McKinsey report was produced which said that one of the prerequisites of a new national paediatric hospital was that it should be co-located with an adult hospital. Yet paediatricians differ from that opinion and say that the prerequisite is to have it co-located with a maternity hospital in order to avoid any trauma being suffered, during the journey to the new hospital, by premature and newborn babies who suffer from various defects.

I note that planning permission has not yet been applied for. Almost a year and a half ago I brought it to the attention of the House that the planning permission should be the phase 2 option for a maternity hospital. Unfortunately I did not get any answers to my particular query back then. In the history of planning permissions, phase 2 approvals for hospitals have never taken place. I ask the Deputy Leader to ensure that the application for planning permission is made for a maternity hospital rather than waiting for the hospital to be built and then realising that planning permission for a maternity hospital is needed. Go raibh maith agat.