Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 789: To ask the Minister for Health and Children if she will make a statement confirming plans for the future of the National Children's Hospital at Tallaght Hospital. [29940/06]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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In late 2005, the Health Service Executive (HSE), at my request, undertook a review of tertiary paediatric services. McKinsey & Company were engaged by the HSE and their report included a number of key recommendations:

The population and projected demands in this country can support only one world class tertiary paediatric hospital

It should be in Dublin, and should ideally be co-located with a leading adult academic hospital (i.e. should be within a practical walking distance of such a hospital)

It should also provide all the secondary (i.e. less complex) hospital needs of children in the Greater Dublin area

These secondary services should be supported by strategically-located Urgent Care Services.

A joint HSE / Department of Health and Children Task Group was established in February 2006 to advise on the optimum location of the proposed new hospital. The Task Group invited the six major adult academic hospitals (including The Adelaide and Meath Hospital, incorporating the National Children's Hospital) to make submissions. Each of the paediatric hospitals expressed strong support for the development of a single paediatric hospital, and emphasized the crucial need for decisions in relation to the new hospital to be taken urgently. Consultant representatives reiterated their commitment to move to the new hospital regardless of its location.

Following extensive examination, discussion and consultation, the Task Group recommended that the new national tertiary paediatric hospital should be built on a site to be made available by the Mater Misericordiae Hospital. The Task Group's report and its recommendations were endorsed by the Board of the HSE. At its meeting on 8th June, the Government strongly endorsed the recommendation that the new National Paediatric Hospital be developed as an independent hospital on a site to be made available by the Mater Hospital. The Government mandated the HSE to move forward with the development of the new hospital and its associated urgent care centres, and to explore any philanthropic proposals in relation to its development. The governance arrangements that will arise in the context of amalgamation of the three children's hospitals will also be pursued, in particular the measures needed to ensure that the new hospital is multi-denominational and pluralist in character.

A joint HSE/Department of Health and Children Transition Group has since been established to advance the development of the new Hospital. Among the key items to be addressed are the definition of a high level framework brief for the new Hospital and the determination of the scope and location of the Urgent Care Service required to support the new hospital. The Group is expected to enter into consultations with relevant stakeholders, which will include representatives of the National Children's Hospital.