Dr. Emma Curtis:

I understand the thinking behind it was that Tallaght University Hospital was designed with the children's hospital integrated into the adult hospital, and, therefore, to get to the children's emergency department, one has to go through the adult emergency department. In addition, the predicted activity for the emergency department in Tallaght was much less than it is in reality. When Tallaght opened, it would have been a quieter emergency department than it is now, given it sees some 32,000 to 33,000 children a year, which is virtually the same as the number seen in the emergency department in Crumlin. Therefore, the emergency department in Tallaght would not accommodate the way we want to deliver the service now or the way it will be delivered in the main hospital and in the Connolly urgent care centre.

The other piece is that part of the children's hospital in Tallaght is the beds, which, of course, are integrated into the main hospital. What we are delivering with the new build at Tallaght is an urgent care centre that is built and developed the way a modern urgent care centre should be, and similar to the quality and standard in Connolly and the main hospital, as well as an outpatient department that has the right kind of support.

For example, there will be a large orthopaedic service in the urgent care centre at Tallaght, with a physiotherapy and occupational therapy gym beside it for children who are recovering from injury fractures, but that is currently in the physiotherapy department of the adult hospital in Tallaght. It is a new project that brings the three children's hospitals together. Integrating the urgent care and outpatient centre at Tallaght into the adult hospital would have meant that it would not have joined up as part of Children's Health Ireland.