Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

This section simply deals with the funding of the hospital's development board. As all of us will be aware, a decision on the siting of the new national paediatric hospital has been made on expert advice which has been dealt with in detail in both of these Houses. The new hospital will contain tertiary facilities.

I do not want to mislead the House or Senator Fitzgerald, but to my recollection the Minister, Deputy Harney, recently outlined the level and type of services that will be continued at Tallaght Hospital. Coming from the south of Ulster as I do, if the people in Cavan-Monaghan were to choose a site in Dublin for a national children's hospital we would choose the one at the Mater Hospital or one on the northside of the city because it provides the easiest access from our point of view. It must be borne in mind, as Senator Feeney stated, that the new national paediatric hospital is a national hospital to treat children from all over the country, and I am sure that will include those from the North and the South as well.