Liam Twomey (Wexford, Fine Gael)

This is an extremely important issue. It is important that the selection process was transparent but the Minister's answer leaves me in some doubt as to whether it was rigorous and followed best international practice. I do not wish to make the charge that political interference occurred but this charge arises because people are unsure as to how this decision was reached. The Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Killeen, indicated in the Seanad that three hospitals were more or less immediately knocked out of this process because of the breadth and scope of their tertiary services. Given the Minister of State's assertion, the Minister should explain to the House the deficits in tertiary care that exist in St. Vincent's Hospital and the National Children's Hospital, Tallaght, which make them unsuitable sites for the new children's hospital.

If the Minister is insisting on closing down the National Children's Hospital, Tallaght, where does this leave all the other paediatric units across the country which are much smaller than the paediatric unit in Tallaght? Does the Minister also intend to rationalise the services in these units in the future when she examines the wider elements of paediatric care? These are extremely important questions. We need to find out how the Mater site was selected. Fine Gael has no difficulty with whatever hospital receives the new children's hospital but it has a considerable problem with how it is selected. The Minister has not made it sufficiently clear how the site was selected and her answers so far are not sufficiently transparent. She should also address the other questions. What is wrong with St. Vincent's Hospital and the National Children's Hospital, Tallaght, to render them unsuitable for tertiary paediatric services? What are the Minister's plans for paediatric units across the country which are smaller than the National Children's Hospital, Tallaght?

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