Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I first want to state that I am not a clinical or medical professional, I am not a planner and I do not have a young family or children. I live in the area where Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children is located in Crumlin. I have worked with many families in respect of the crises they have met in that hospital year in and year out on issues such as scoliosis, the minding of children and access to their children while they are in hospital. In the absence of a top class children's hospital in the State the Crumlin Hospital had to be developed and a large amount of money has gone in to the Crumlin Hospital over the last number of years.

I have met with the national paediatric hospital development board. They explained quite clearly why the St. James's site, which provides co-location with an adult hospital, provides absolutely the best way to give the greatest care to our children. These are children who have not had the greatest of care over the last 20 or 30 years in the State.

I can understand why people are questioning the project. Too many times in this country we have seen decisions made, such as the Mater Hospital plan, which then fall apart through objections around suitability and other areas of concern. People have a right to question things as they develop over time and I support people having that right. We have accepted too much bad planning for there to be no questioning of plans. I support people being able to question it. The arguments made by the national paediatric hospital development board were sensible. The information came from consultants at Tallaght and the Coombe hospitals and from Galway and across the water. They said that this was the best way to do it. The Coombe Hospital had indicated in 2015 that it would relocate to St. James's Hospital, and there was room for that, and this made the decision even more important from a medical perspective.

A number of people have already said there are pros and cons to every site, but the public transport access to this site is going to be important, especially when the Luas lines join up. People will be able to travel right across the city. I know the emergency transport access must be dealt with and I would like to see more development of explanations around how that will be resolved. The worst nightmare for a family would be if they were caught up somewhere and they could not get access to the services they need. This must be dealt with through the national paediatric hospital development board and through the Minister.

There are serious questions about money. It is a problem with this country in general. While I am not comparing the children's hospital with a football stadium, I was talking to somebody only yesterday who said that the Aviva in Dublin was built at a cost of about €480 million while Juventus football ground was built at the same time for about €140 million. With every project, we hear there is a cap on the cost, yet by the time it is actually built we are well above that. We have to examine how we deal with this issue of agreed costs versus the costs we end up with. I would like to hear more from the Minister on that matter.

Although I will not be supporting the motion, I take on board many of the points made in the Sinn Féin amendment. Very reasonable points are being made there about reporting back to the Dáil every quarter about what is happening. I question the estimated cost of €1.1 billion. I do not know how much it is going to cost as we have not got that figure yet. When the figure is brought out, I will comment on it. The Minister should now move very quickly. The decamping has happened, the site has been cleared and we should be moving much more quickly now.

I welcome the Minister's point about the move in respect of the maternity hospital and the talks he has had on that issue. That, too, should be moved more quickly as regards planning and so on.

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