Micheál Martin (Cork South-Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In the opening of any major hospital facility - I have experience of both sanctioning and providing the funding for some major facilities from my time as Minister for Health and Children - there is always a subsequent debate and issue around the proper commissioning and staffing of a hospital, particularly in the context of movement from the older facilities to the newer facility. I understand that Children’s Health Ireland has been working on this for quite some time and that there has been a whole range of structures set in place to facilitate a smooth transition from the existing paediatric hospitals and tertiary hospitals to the new national children’s hospital. I accept that this will be on a scale never experienced before, particularly in paediatric medicine. In my view, the new facility will be state of the art. There will be a huge step change in terms of health and we need to match that with the required staffing levels.

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