The decision on the location of the new national children's hospital should wait until after the election, according to Fine Gael's Dublin spokesman, Senator Brian Hayes, who is an election candidate in Dublin South West.
He said the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, should stop trying to push through by stealth the plan for the new children's hospital in the grounds of the Mater in advance of the election.
"Minister Harney is trying to bypass the Oireachtas and ram through her proposal to set up a development board to oversee the establishment of a new national paediatric hospital in the Mater. The decision must wait until after the general election as there is a clear difference in policy within the Government and between the Fianna Fáil/PD Government and the alternative government of Fine Gael and Labour," said Senator Hayes.
He said that establishing the hospital board by statutory instrument, rather than by legislation in the Oireachtas, would make a bad situation even worse, particularly from the perspective of Crumlin and Tallaght. "The Minister for Health has sent a template for the proposed new development board to Temple Street Hospital, Crumlin Hospital and the National Children's Hospital in Tallaght.
"I have seen the proposed statutory instrument and I believe it is essential, before a development board is established, that the legal framework and functions of this new board be clearly debated, as it has considerable consequences for the voluntary hospital sector and for paediatric medicine in Dublin and the country as a whole," he said.
The Senator said the new national paediatric hospital was now intended to be the sole hospital in Dublin to provide secondary hospital services for children in the greater Dublin area.
"This runs in complete contrast to a statement the Taoiseach recently made in the Dáil, where he said that 90 per cent of the children who currently attend the National Children's Hospital in Tallaght will still be treated in Tallaght after the new hospital is opened . . . [whereas] Minister Harney is proposing one structure for paediatric medicine in Dublin."
