Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will keep to the question. Everyone welcomes that a decision was finally made on the location of the national children's hospital and that the site designated was at St. James's Hospital. We all remember the debates about the Mater hospital site, the allegations of political interference and all the associated nonsense that was propagated at the time.

The concern is that the Minister is now referring to establishing the national paediatric development board for the capital project and then streamlining with Dr. Jim Browne from Galway to bring the hospitals of Temple Street, Crumlin and Tallaght together. The key question is whether there will be a diminution of services in these three hospitals prior to the opening of the national paediatric hospital at the St. James's campus. This is an issue of key concern because we are unsure when the national children's hospital will be completed. Is there a timeframe, assuming everything goes according to plan and everything that flows from that? My concern, shared by many people working in the hospitals in Temple Street, Crumlin and Tallaght, is that there will be a diminution of services. They do not expect vast capital investment in these three places if they are to be wound down, but in the meantime children deserve the best quality treatment in reasonable surroundings. This is something about which people working at the coalface are concerned.

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