Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

I fully accept that not everybody is in favour of the Mater Hospital site. If the impression was created that everybody was happy then it was wrong. Of course they are not, but I do not believe that there is any site in the country to be co-located with an adult hospital that would have met all the requirements.

I said that 84% of the children that attend the accident and emergency department in Tallaght Hospital do not get admitted. The children's hospital in Tallaght has a 40% bed occupancy, so 84% of children who present there are dealt with and go home. We believe this will continue to be the case in an 8 a.m to midnight facility. There will be ambulance facilities in the hospital and very few children get transported to hospital between midnight and 8 a.m. Having a single facility in the city that will take children between those times is not unreasonable. Given the level of care that will be provided there, it will be much more reassuring for the parents of sick children, many of whom I have met. The message they have given me, whether they are parents of children in Tallaght, Crumlin or Temple Street, is to get on with it and give them the hospital they deserve.

The Deputy is right to say there will not be inpatient beds, as it will consist of day procedures and activity in the accident and emergency departments. I am not in a position to say what is appropriate in 2012 on a day basis and what requires inpatient facilities. That will be a matter for clinical decisions and not for me.

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