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

The decision to locate the new children's hospital on the St. James's campus was announced on 6 November 2012. Co-location, and ultimately tri-location with a maternity hospital, on the St. James's campus will support the provision of excellence in clinical care that our children deserve. The new children’s hospital is a key commitment in the programme for Government and the largest project in the current capital plan.

The national paediatric hospital development board is the body charged with building the hospital. I intend to restructure the board so its sole focus is on the core function of planning, designing, building and equipping the new hospital, and that its membership includes the expertise needed to deal with a very large and complex capital project. Pending the necessary appointments to the board, senior officials from my Department and the HSE, appointed to the board in January 2013, have been working to progress the project at its new location. In this first phase of the project, the transitional board's focus is on reconciling the brief with the new site, site preparation, close-out of existing contracts and new procurement processes. A joint group involving the HSE and St. James's Hospital meet regularly to progress the enabling and decant work required. A shared services group is in place focusing on identifying the facilities which can be shared so as to optimise the build, and a review of urgent care centres configuration is under way and expected to be completed in the coming weeks. The contract notice for the procurement of a new design team is expected to be published in the coming weeks. The aim is to have the new design team in place within six months and to secure planning permission by December 2014.

Work on developing a detailed project timeline is continuing under the transitional board, recognising the urgency and priority attached to the project as well as its scale and complexity.

I am also establishing a children's hospital group, comprising the three existing children's hospitals. This is an important step in moving towards the transition of the three hospitals to a single entity. With regard to resources for the existing children's hospitals, the HSE National Service Plan 2013 sets out the quantum and type of health services to be provided in 2013 within the overall level of funding provided.

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The three children's hospitals have stated their commitment to becoming a single service across three sites and are working closely together, with a single clinical director across the three sites, to ensure optimisation of resources and facilities.

This project is of huge importance for the provision of acute paediatric services for all children in Ireland and is a priority for me and for this Government. I am confident that the project governance and management arrangements which I have outlined will ensure the swiftest possible completion, with optimal design and value for money.

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