Professor Chris Fitzpatrick:

I thank the Chair and members of the Committee of Public Accounts for the opportunity to speak to them about the national children's hospital. I am here today in a personal capacity. I am also representing the children with the highest mortality rates in the State - the 200 or so critically ill newborn infants who, every year, within hours of birth, are separated from their mothers and transported in ambulances between the Dublin maternity hospitals and the children's hospitals in Crumlin and Temple Street and for whom nothing will change in this hazardous journey when the national children's hospital is built. These are babies who are diagnosed before birth with life-threatening conditions and, of the 600 newborn babies who are transferred between hospitals in the State, these are the 200 who are most likely to die.

Best international practice dictates that these very high-risk babies are delivered in a co-located maternity hospital and, after initial stabilisation, immediately transferred across an internal link corridor to a tertiary children's hospital. This model of care is supported and endorsed by the medical director of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board.