James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased that Deputy Kelleher has referred to Dr. Jim Browne. I believe he will make an excellent chair of the new children's hospital group. One problem has been the need to separate some of the functions of the previous board to get the required result. I assure the Deputy and all those concerned with delivering care to children in this country that there is no intention on our part to have any diminution of care.

As the Deputy rightly pointed out it would be rather foolish to spend large sums of money on capital development at any of the three hospitals concerned, but that does not mean that the care of children there will change, save to say that it will continue to improve and as new developments and techniques become available, we expect that they will become available at the current centres. Certainly, it is our intention to encourage the new children's hospital group to act as a unit. We want to pre-empt some of the difficulties that occurred in the past such as those we have seen on the boards of other hospitals that have come together. We want people to leave behind their old hats and remember that this is a national paediatric hospital. It is not three Dublin paediatric hospitals coming together but a national paediatric hospital and it is appropriate that the chair should come from outside Dublin, and this is the case.

See this speech in context