Mary Ann O'Brien (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I request that the Minister for Health or his replacement comes in here to debate the proposed St. James's children's hospital. I will refresh the memory of Senators. St. James's did not meet the criteria of six hectares set out in the Dolphin report because the site is only 2.4 hectares. I repeat that the children's hospital needed six hectares but the Coombe hospital has 14 acres and the Blanchardstown hospital has 16 acres available.

The next issue is car park facilities. I will outline statistics gathered from around the world that have been compiled for me and which let me know exactly how many car park spaces are needed per bed. Once we have the adult and children's hospital located at St. James's, we will need a total of 5,230 car park spaces. The maximum that Dublin City Council will allow is 2,000 but current planning and design allows for 1,500. The Jack and Jill Foundation wrote to all the Senators this morning to state that we have been deluged by letters and inquiries from parents asking why choose St. James's. I ask Members to imagine the following scenario. A sick child who is tube fed and needs a wheelchair to get about is having an epileptic fit but one's husband is in work so one puts the child in the back of the car. Is any Senator going to tell me they would get on the Luas in that situation?

If one goes to St. James's where there is a bottleneck of traffic anyway, how on earth is one going to park? We need 5,280 car park spaces, and in a perfect world there will never be more than 2,000, but currently it appears there will only be 1,500. I apologise for ranting. Some 92% of sick children arrive at hospital by car.

This is an issue that will eventually bring down the Government. Those who are sitting on the Government benches think I am mad but let us go back to the Mater. How much money was wasted on the Mater? We are at the design team stage in St. James's. If I had more time I could outline the issue step by step, and if any Members wish to speak to me individually I will be available. St. James's will not make it to the end of planning. It will not get planning permission. Do Members want to sit here and preside over the next expensive failure of the next children's hospital? We need to sit down and debate this issue. The servants at the back of the HSE have somehow blackguarded the Minister that this is the place, whether it was the adult hospitals and their associated powerful universities who have pushed this through. I assure the House that the parents of the sick children do not want the hospital in St. James's and I wonder if the paediatricians have had any say either.