Professor Chris Fitzpatrick:

There were issues arising from both medical politics and politics. I have written about this before. This was played out as a competition between various institutions to acquire the national children's hospital. Acquiring the national children's hospital would bring such kudos and status to a hospital that it would become the de facto national adult hospital. There are several issues. We were emerging from a recession so perhaps money was an issue. The decision was made after a failed planning application to build on the Mater Hospital site. Members may remember the visual imagery. It was a very imaginative, almost surreal hospital in terms of magnitude. When this was played out for a second time six years later, there was a fear that if the proposal for the St. James's Hospital site was overly complex it might fail to get planning permission. That rang an alarm bell for me. We needed to prove that we could build both hospitals on that site.

Moreover, it is a very busy site. Obviously-----