Key Question Now is Finding the Finance

The decision to install the new National Children’s Hospital next to the Mater on the north side of Dublin has been dogged by controversy since it was announced in 2006.

Hours of talk time and newspaper printing hectares have been allocated to the various arguments for and against the chosen site.

Many people have expressed concern about the access path to the bustling city, the lack of parking, the proposed metro station site has not yet been built, and it would be too much wind on top of a 16-storey building to build a heliport essential.

On the other hand, those arguing in favour of the Mater campus say it’s important to get on with the hospital once and for all, as the facilities at Crumlin and Temple Street hospitals in particular are far from ideal.

Initially there was reluctance on the part of the children’s hospitals in Tallaght and Crumlin to get involved in the development of the hospital at the Mater site. Eventually they succumbed, and all appeared to be going to plan until the chairman of the board set up to develop the new hospital, Philip Lynch, resigned last October, claiming the selection of the site had been “a political decision, a northside job”, something rejected by then minister for health Mary Harney and the Health Service Executive. His departure reignited the row over the location for the hospital.

During the general election campaign earlier this year, Fine Gael health spokesman James Reilly promised to review the location if elected and appointed minister. He succeeded on both counts, and his proposed review was enough to provoke the exit of the hospital development board’s second chairman, John Gallagher, in March. He was unhappy about the continued questioning of the suitability of the Mater site.

Reilly assembled an independent team of experts to examine whether it would be cheaper to build the hospital elsewhere, and to decide whether the clinical benefits of the hospital being co-located with an adult hospital outweighed any extra costs which might be involved in building the hospital on the Mater campus.

The review group, whose findings were published yesterday, unequivocally endorsed the Mater site. They concluded it would be no cheaper to build the hospital on a greenfield site close to the M50 offered by developer Noel Smyth, given millions had already been expended on planning the hospital for the Mater campus and the fact that going down that road would mean the hospital would not be built for another eight years. The existing children’s hospitals would have to be upgraded in the meantime.

In reality, the review group noted “no perfect site” was available, and they believed “the traffic and access issues raised can be mitigated” even if Metro North never goes ahead and even if the new hospital generates 10,000 arrivals and departures per day, as expected.

They also believed co-locating the hospital with an adult facility and a maternity hospital “is essential to the development of an excellent paediatric service”. However, there’s no word on when the Rotunda will move to the site, a prospect looking increasingly remote in the current climate.

It is time, nonetheless, for everyone to quit arguing and get on with the hospital’s construction.

The key issue now is how the €650 million hospital will be financed. Some €110 million will have to come from philanthropy and fundraising – a headache in itself – but the Government will not even sign off on its share of the costs until a review of spending on all capital projects is completed in September. It seems likely, however, that this spending review will rubber stamp the project, given the construction of the hospital is already committed to in the programme for government.

The next hurdle is the planning permission. There should be several days of hearings held by Bord Pleanála in advance, where the arguments for and against the Mater site will be defeated again.