Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to meet Mr. Donnelly and welcome him to this meeting. I was going to welcome him to Dublin 8 but I do not need to do that because, as we all know, he has been involved with the Coombe hospital for a long time.

Mr. Donnelly is going to the St. James's Hospital's campus at an exciting and challenging time. As someone who does not live far from it, I have always been intrigued by the comings and goings of the people there and the talents that they have brought. There is no end of talent in the CV that Mr. Donnelly mentioned. I stated "challenging time" because, as a local public representative, I can hear the rumblings in the camps about the new national children's hospital. We should be standing on every rooftop and singing about how wonderful it is to have the national children's hospital in the Dublin 8 area. It will not only enhance the campus, but also the wider community. In the long term, local people will be able to work there, as many already do at St. James's Hospital. I hope that Mr. Donnelly, as chairman of the board, will be able to enthuse and get as much information out there about the new hospital as is possible.

We are coming to a tricky time. I listened with great interest when Senator Crown stated that we finally had a site and needed to get behind it to get the job done. However, there are rumblings on the ground among residents. We understand their concerns, which I hope can be dealt with carefully. It is important for the complex's future, and particularly that of the national children's hospital, that there is someone like Mr. Donnelly within the campus who has a wide range of experience, including in business.

I hope that we will not have to climb every mountain to get the children's hospital over the line when it enters the planning process in July. It is an opportunity to have expertise and state-of-the-art facilities and to avoid shifting children who are ill from one end of the country to another. I am looking forward to it. This committee visited the site. Anyone to whom I have spoken about the new hospital or St. James's Hospital, including my family, had nothing but the height of praise for both.

I wish Mr. Donnelly the best and hope that our paths will cross again, if not at committee level, then in our efforts over the coming year to get the hospital completed.