Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for the fact the Minister cannot be here to take this Topical Issue but I am glad to take it because it is in my constituency and I have been involved for a long time in respect of the location of the project in St. James's Hospital. I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. I am pleased to take this opportunity to update the House about the new children's hospital. The project to develop the new children's hospital is an extraordinary opportunity to enhance paediatric services for children. The granting of planning permission in April 2016 for the hospital, satellite centres and related buildings was a huge and very welcome milestone for the project. Independent reviews since 2006 have reaffirmed the importance of co-location of the paediatric hospital with a major adult academic teaching hospital. The Government decision in 2012 to locate the hospital on the St. James's Hospital campus was made in the best interests of children from a clinical perspective. St. James's has the broadest range of national specialties of all our acute hospitals in addition to a strong and well-established research and education infrastructure making it the hospital that best meets the criteria to enable the children's hospital to achieve our vision of excellence in modern paediatric practice.

As announced in June 2015, the Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital will relocate to the campus, in time achieving the tri-location of adult, paediatric and maternity services. Tri-location has benefits for children, adolescents, newborns and mothers. In all cases, the benefits of tri-location are maximised where the adult hospital provides the broadest possible range of clinical sub-specialties and expertise, which are readily accessible for paediatric and maternity patients on the shared campus. Also, tri-location that delivers the most significant breadth and depth of clinical and academic research on site will enhance the potential of research to drive best clinical outcomes.

Furthermore, excellence in modem paediatric practice cannot be achieved without an embedded culture of, and focus on, research, education and innovation. More than a hospital, the new children's hospital and satellite centres will be a research-intensive academic health care institution. To deliver this vision, the main facilities for research and innovation will be located at the Children's Research and Innovation Centre on the St. James's Hospital campus. This facility will be located adjacent to the Institute of Molecular Medicine, a cross-university facility which delivers both undergraduate and postgraduate education and which has a strong research platform in cancer, infection and immunity and neurosciences. This direct adjacency reflects one of the many and significant opportunities being leveraged by co-locating on the campus with St. James's Hospital with its rich history in clinical research. Clinical management and research staff at the new children's hospital will be able to study, evaluate and improve the health care services provided to children and young people in Ireland.

Objectors to the location raise concerns primarily about access to the site. I wish to reassure parents that the plans and design for the hospital recognise the need of most families to access the hospital by car while noting that the campus is better served by public transport than any other hospital in the country. While the Minister for Health is aware that not everyone agrees with the decision on the location of the hospital, he believes the priority is to make progress on the new hospital as soon as possible so that we can ensure children, young people and their families have the facilities they need and deserve.

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