Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It goes without saying that the House stands united in condemnation of the callous murder of David Black. I made the point at the North-South Ministerial Council meeting the other day, in the company of the Tánaiste and the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister of the Northern Ireland Assembly, that Yvonne Black had lost a husband, her children Kyle and Kyra had lost their father and Ulster had lost a hardworking citizen. We unreservedly condemn this. On behalf of the Government, I was happy to say that the working relationships between the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Alan Shatter, and the Minister for Justice, David Forde, between the Garda Commissioner, Martin Callinan, and Chief Constable of the PSNI, Matt Baggott, and between the Garda and the PSNI are working exceptionally well at the very highest level.

I hope the perpetrators of this murder are brought before the courts and that justice is, and is seen to be, done. We do not want a return to this kind of callous tragedy and to this senseless kind of murder. All the agencies of this State will be at the disposal of the PSNI and the Northern Ireland authorities to ensure those who perpetrated this are brought to justice as quickly as possible. I thank Deputy Kelleher for raising this. He can take it that the capacity and information available to us is at the disposal of the authorities in Northern Ireland and vice versa applies.

At its meeting today, the Government confirmed that the decision is to build the national paediatric hospital on the site at St. James's Hospital. The Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, has been careful and realistic in his assessment of the timeline for completion of the children's hospital facility in late 2017 or early 2018. Work can commence immediately in vacating relevant temporary structures and buildings on the St. James's Hospital site which currently provide clinical and non-clinical services. The proposed development site for the paediatric hospital can be available within six months with clearance, decanting and enabling works happening during 2013 and 2014. Construction of the new hospital can commence by 2015. Clearly, a design process and a procurement structure must be dealt with and the issue of planning permission and so on must be gone through. It is not a case of being able to give the Deputy a specific month by which the entity will be complete. Suffice it to say, I am glad clarity has been brought to the situation. The Government has made a very clear decision to build the national paediatric hospital on the St. James's hospital site.

I thank everybody who provides care and attention to our children in all the medical facilities. I hope that, despite the great difference of opinion among many medical people at the very highest level, there will be buy-in to the decision of Government. The interest here is to provide the very best facilities for all the children of the island who will avail of the services and staff of the hospital once it is built.

The Deputy can take it that the Minister for Health and the Government are, and will always be, anxious to see that in the intervening period, facilities and resources are made available to the existing children's hospital facilities in order that they can continue to provide the first class care and attention they have always provided despite inadequate resources on many occasions and despite cramped space and other conditions. It is in the country's interest that the Government sees that happens, and it will happen.

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