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

The plan for the children's hospital has been on the agenda since the 1990s when a single tertiary children's hospital for Dublin was proposed by the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland and recommended to be built on an adult hospital site. That was three decades ago and our children are still waiting for a hospital of such a standard. In 2006, the McKinsey report recommended a single national children's hospital into which the three existing children’s hospitals in Dublin would be merged. From that point, the children's hospital became a political football.

The Mater site was pushed by Fianna Fáil and the then Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, who wanted it in his constituency. In 2012, An Bord Pleanála refused permission for the Mater site and €35 million was written off as a result. After that report, the then Minister for Health, Senator James Reilly, set up the Dolphin report which announced the new site at St. James's Hospital. A planning application was submitted and we know the story from there. Its cost was estimated at €650 million but now has gone up to €1.73 billion.

It is an absolute scandal. The community in which I live, Dublin south-central where the hospital will be located, finds this incredulous. We know damn well that anybody who gets an extension goes to an architect to get a plan and then a price from the builder. Half the price is paid halfway through and only when all the completion snags are finished is the full amount paid. I know the hospital is a much more complex project but we put a board in place to monitor costs. I said recently that the work should have stopped and costs reviewed. A decision to continue or to retender should have taken place then. That has not happened. The Government has continued with its line.

In my dealings with the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board, many questions of concern were raised. Eminent paediatric professionals had come out clearly and stated: "We are unequivocal in our certainty that the campus at St. James’s Hospital is the right location for Ireland’s much-needed and much-wanted new children’s hospital." There are many reasons the campus shared with St. James’s Hospital is the right location for the new children’s hospital, but the primary one is that it has the greatest number of clinical specialties that will best support our teams in the delivery of better services and clinical outcomes for our sickest children and young people. That is the key point why I support this hospital. There are significant concerns in the community. We dealt with those concerns by supporting the residents’ project monitoring committee. I am not a professional paediatrician. However, paediatricians in the three children’s hospitals said this was the best site. I do not support the motion.

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