Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I met with the board of Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin, about three weeks ago. We had a very good discussion about the future and the problems the hospital is facing this year. I appealed to the board then, and repeat the appeal now, that it buy into the new pediatric hospital for Dublin. We have been dragging our feet on this issue for too long. The proposal was first made in 2006; three years later we are still waiting for Crumlin hospital to commit to it.

Lest there be any doubt, I acknowledge, like Deputy D'Arcy and other Deputies, the wonderful work that is done in Crumlin children's hospital. However, we must deal with the real world here. We need a single pediatric hospital in the city, as was established by the McKinsey report in 2006. Since then there have been potential judicial reviews, all sorts of position papers and, in my view, we have been buried in medical politics. The main argument against establishing this hospital on the Mater site has been its location. It is argued that it is a tight site, it is hard to get to and has no parking. However, Temple Street hospital, which is 400 yards down the road, has no parking and is difficult to access. The two main hospitals in London, Guy's Hospital and Great Ormonde Street Hospital, have no parking but nobody argues about that.

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