Professor Chris Fitzpatrick:

Three are needed in Dublin. The problem is that all three have been operating above capacity for a long time. Not only are they maternity hospitals, they are neonatal centres and gynaecology hospitals. Where the three need to be has already been decided. One is to be in St. Vincent's. That was the neatest fit because of the fact that St. Vincent's was never going to have the paediatric hospital. When the Mater was the designated site for the children's hospital, the Rotunda was to move to the Mater. Since the site changed, the Rotunda is now instead to move to Connolly hospital. Three hospitals are needed in Dublin. I do not think we could ever get to the stage where we could rationalise them down to two. We support what is happening in the other two hospitals. The critical thing is that the big project is the children's hospital. One cannot build a hospital that does not deliver what one sets out to deliver, especially if one spends more money on it than on any hospital in the world. This will be a spectacular example of failure if a maternity hospital is not put there. It is time now to get that work done. The financial piece has been done but this is equally important and feeds into the finances too. The money that this will cost is insignificant in the context of what has been wasted to date on it.