Ms Eilísh Hardiman:

To be clear, we are talking about our sickest children. The sickest children in Ireland have access to our current hospitals and will have access to the new hospital. The service there will be even better. That was the point of the consolidation of services. It is also important that children can and should get their care as locally as possible. We support that as our model of care.

The Deputy is right that BUMBLEance is a partner of ours. It tends to transport the children who are sick with the rarest conditions because it has a dedicated ambulance to do that. It does that in a meaningful, child-centred and family-focused way. We work in partnership with BUMBLEance. Neonatal services have extended to 24-hour cover. Newborns who are born anywhere in the country can be brought immediately to Dublin, either to the maternity hospitals, the existing children's hospitals or the new children's hospital. We also have a plan to extend the paediatric emergency ambulance service. That service is working predominantly in daytime hours at the moment. Plans are being developed and funded to make that a 24-hour service. Our intention is that if a child needs our services because it will make a difference to his or her clinical outcome, a paediatric ambulance service will be available by the time the new hospital is built. There is already a successful neonatal ambulance service.