Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

I have spoken to many of them and I think the Deputy is aware of that. We are following the advice of what happens in the best children's hospitals in the world. Most of those hospitals are downtown in the centre of the city, co-located with research facilities, adult teaching hospitals and so on. When the consultants were appointed to look at 17 different children's hospitals, they came to a strong recommendation that this was the way forward for our population base. I do not think a good model of care is provided if experts have to travel from one site to another. It is better that all the expertise is together.

The development board must develop a hospital. It must appoint a CEO and take the design that will be given to it by the HSE. None of that will happen until we get the RKW report. After the consultation this week with the stakeholders, my understanding is that RKW intends finalising the report in a matter of weeks.

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