Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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The construction of the new national paediatric hospital is an important issue that has been on the agenda for some time. The Government must move forward with this project. The site has been chosen following lengthy consultations on engineering logistics and health involving the Mater Hospital, the Rotunda Hospital and the children's hospitals. All of that is now complete and the recommendation was made by a qualified group of people to go for the Mater Hospital option.

That decision was taken some time ago. The Minister should now outline the timescale for the planning, construction and delivery of the children's hospital.

It is a long time since discussions took place on the upgrading of the children's hospitals. Crumlin Hospital, Temple Street Hospital and St. James's Hospital have never had state-of-the-art facilities. It is now more than 25 years since Temple Street Hospital was supposed to get a new facility in the grounds of the Mater Hospital and ten years since €400 million was put aside for that purpose. Planning applications were prepared and millions of euro spent on plans for the relocation of the children's hospital in Temple Street. Just as the tenders were about to be opened, the Minister for Health and Children put a stay on opening the tenders because the new given wisdom was that there should be a centralised national children's hospital.

The proposal now is to bypass the normal planning application process and to go for the new process under the legislation that allows for structures to directly to An Bord Pleanála on the grounds of strategic importance. There are some suggestions, however, that there could be further delays.

We should be told when the planning application will be submitted, how long it will take, how long construction will take and what has happened to the €400 million specifically put aside and never drawn down for Temple Street Children's Hospital. Is that now part of the €700 million that the existing national hospital will cost?

There are not many good things about a recession but a possible advantage is that construction costs will be cheaper, allowing the Government to get a better deal. This is the time to build. When we consider the tenet of the 1916 Proclamation that the children of the nation should be cherished equally, this would be a good monument to have up and running before we begin the centenary celebrations for 1916.

Barry Andrews (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Government's priority is to provide the best standard of complex hospital care for children in Ireland. To further that priority the Government is fully committed to the construction of the new national paediatric hospital at the Mater Hospital site. We are also committed to providing the associated ambulatory and urgent care centre at Tallaght Hospital. This is an essential part of the overall development.

The new children's hospital will play a central role in an integrated network of paediatric services across Ireland. Merging the three Dublin paediatric hospitals into a single hospital structure will ensure a critical mass of specialised skills to provide highly complex treatment and care to sick children. It will also provide additional benefits for sub-specialisation and for developing campus-wide support services. The three hospitals are already collaborating with the Mater Hospital to maximise the potential for appropriate sharing of services across the Mater campus.

The Minister set up the national paediatric hospital development board in May 2007 to plan, design, build, furnish and equip the new national children's hospital. The board is making good progress in its work and that it is working intensively with the HSE to bring the project to fruition. The integrated design team, appointed in October 2009, has now completed the concept designs for both the new children's hospital and the ambulatory and urgent care centre at Tallaght.

The development board will shortly be applying for full planning permission for the hospital. The planning process will go ahead under the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2010, which will shortly be applied to major health infrastructural projects. There have been some claims that using this new provision will slow down the planning process for the National Children's Hospital. In fact, the Minister believes that it will help streamline the process, by a direct referral to An Bord Pleanála. Without the new Act, the hospital would first have to go through the relevant local authorities.

Clearly this is a major project, which we all want to put in place as soon as possible. The national paediatric hospital development board estimates that, subject to planning permission, the construction of the hospital will be completed by the end of 2014. The Minister has asked the development board and the HSE to ensure that the fit out and commissioning of the hospital takes place as soon as possible after this.

The full development is a very positive step forward for paediatric care in Ireland. The three existing children's hospitals in Dublin have been fully involved in the consultation process, as have all other relevant stakeholders, including children, their parents and academic institutions. This type of consultation will help ensure that the best possible decisions are made as we seek to deliver an optimal paediatric service for Ireland.

In preparation for the new hospital, the HSE has set up structures to coordinate and steer various aspects of this development working with the development board. Within this structure the HSE is working with the three hospitals involved to ensure that all current resources are utilised in the most efficient and effective manner possible. The Minister believes that significant cost savings are achievable if services and practices are more closely integrated, even before the building of a new paediatric hospital has been completed.

An up-to-date model of care which has also been developed for use in the new paediatric hospital. It is based on the delivery of contemporary healthcare and best practice standards for paediatric services. It provides a clear vision and direction for the provision of services to meet the future healthcare needs of children and young people in Ireland.

I am confident that we will meet our objective of providing a world class paediatric service for our children in the new national paediatric hospital.