Seanad debates

Wednesday, 12 November 2014

Adjournment Matters

National Children's Hospital

6:30 pm

Photo of Kathleen LynchKathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am taking the matter on behalf of the Minister for Health, Deputy Leo Varadkar, but I have already dealt with it on foot of another question which was raised. It is a pertinent question. Not alone is it a pertinent question, but those of us with an interest in children's health are terribly worried about any other barrier being put in the way of the national children's hospital. We have had too many obstacles and need to push ahead.

As decided by the Government in November 2012, the new children's hospital will be co-located with St. James's Hospital in Dublin 8. The National Paediatric Hospital Development Board has responsibility for planning, designing, building and equipping the new hospital. A project brief has been approved and a design team is in place. The aim is to make a planning application in June 2015. The Government's intention is that a maternity hospital will be developed on the campus in the future, achieving tri-location of adult, paediatric and maternity services and providing comprehensive health-care services to drive improved clinical outcomes for children and mothers. The project brief for the children's hospital acknowledges this key policy recommendation and, accordingly, provides for consideration of future maternity hospital requirements in certain shared service areas. This will underpin future efficiencies in shared services.

Tri-location is consistent with the recommendations of the 2008 KPMG independent review of maternity and gynaecology services in the greater Dublin area. In 2008, the proposal in the report was that the National Maternity Hospital be relocated to St. Vincent's, the Coombe to Tallaght and the Rotunda to the Mater, achieving co-location of maternity and adult services in all cases and tri-location of adult, paediatric and maternity services at the Mater Hospital. With the decision to move the children's hospital to the St. James's campus, previous plans must be reviewed in respect of the Coombe and the Rotunda. The relocation of the National Maternity Hospital is already under way. That review is now being commenced and will be completed in early 2015. This is the first step in progressing the future tri-located maternity hospital.

As I stated last week in this House, the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board's planning experts have advised that, for a project of this scale, any planning permission application would require significant preparatory work. This, in the board's view, could not be done by June 2015. The Minister for Health has no intention of introducing a delay to the project by requesting the board to seek planning permission for a maternity hospital at this stage. The development board has advised that in submitting its planning application for the children's hospital it intends as a matter of good planning practice - and this is key and was stated in last week's answer - to provide full information on all known future developments for the St. James's campus, including the tri-located maternity hospital. This will enable An Bord Pleanála to consider the children's hospital planning application in the context of these future plans for the campus.

That is key. We have had the KPMG report since 2008, which is what makes this such a frustrating issue. However, letting An Bord Pleanála know that it is intended to apply for a maternity hospital on the site as well should allow it to do the pre-planning preparation that is needed. In an ideal world, the hospital would have been built by now, but it is not.

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