Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this issue. The provision of a national paediatric hospital is the most sensitive issue facing us. We have been talking about this since 1998. We have had the McKinsey report and last year the international expert group reported to the Minister, recommending co-location on the Mater site. We now find that An Bord Pleanála has rejected that on aesthetic grounds and on the grounds of overdevelopment on the Mater site itself.

I would like to ask one or two questions in the context of the terms of reference for the group that has been established which state that it is to inform itself about planning considerations and processes affecting this project. Can the group enter discussions with An Bord Pleanála? Can the group possibly look at amending legislation to allow for the Houses for the Oireachtas to look at this particular project in the context of the Mater Hospital site? This is due in part to the McKinsey report, but more importantly due to the international expert group which stated last year that the Mater was the most suitable site.

There is much concern. Other hospitals and other interest groups will come on board again to say that one site is more suitable than the other, and we will have this debate over and over again. The Minister states that it will 56 days before the group, under the chairmanship of Mr. Frank Dolphin, reports back to him. How quickly thereafter does the Minister expect to be in a position to make a decision on this critical infrastructure in order that we can have it completed for 2016? Everyone would like to adhere to that target in order that we can pass a national children's hospital onto the next generation 100 years after the Easter Rising.

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