Geraldine Feeney (Fianna Fail)

I support Senator Tuffy's call for a debate on proposals for a new children's hospital to replace Temple Street Children's University Hospital, Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin and the children's hospital in the Adelaide and Meath Hospital, Dublin, in Tallaght. I will wait until the debate before I comment on the proposals. However, the measure announced last Friday is wonderful news. Ireland has been waiting for a national children's tertiary hospital since the foundation of the State. Everyone involved, from the medical and nursing personnel and administrators in the three hospitals involved to the parents of children who will attend these hospitals, are all singing from the same hymn sheet when they state that the announcement is good news and what they have been waiting for.

There is nothing to be gained by damning the proposals without knowing all the facts. None of the three hospitals will lose out. We must bear in mind that this will be a national children's tertiary hospital, rather than a Dublin hospital. We have been told that a decision will be made within the next two months. I look forward to a debate on the proposal.