Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It goes without saying that the national paediatric hospital will not be built and opened in 2014 or 2015. Clearly, right through to the end of 2016, the Government will provide Exchequer funding, as has always been the case for facilities and medical personnel to provide care and attention to children who must avail of the facilities at the children's hospitals. That goes without saying. The Deputy can take it that the wind down, as he calls it, of the children's facilities will not happen in the sense that these facilities must be provided and funded parallel to the process of the design, planning, construction and fitting out of the new paediatric facility. It is not a case of, having made a decision to build a new national pediatric hospital, winding down current facilities. That would not be in the best interests of the medical people who work in them and, most important, the children and the services and facilities provided. The Minister for Health and the Government are very conscious of that.

See this speech in context