The National Maternity Hospital is working on plans to relocate from Holles Street in central Dublin. However, the Department of Health is far from convinced about the proposals.
The hospital, the largest maternity unit in the State, is drawing up plans to move from its Dublin city centre base to St Vincent's Hospital at Elm Park, a mile and a half away.
The Master of the hospital, Dr Declan Keane, said yesterday he was in discussions with St Vincent's about the move and the landmark Holles Street building, birthplace of one in 12 of the population, would be sold to offset some of the cost.
Dr Keane said the building was valued at £37 million and a further £25 million was available under the National Development Plan. He said discussions began after the Department of Health and Children and the Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA) gave approval in principle for the idea.
But the Department said last night the £25 million had been discussed only in relation to developments at Holles Street.
There was no approval for a move to a new site and such a proposal would not be considered without detailed plans backed by the ERHA.
An ERHA spokeswoman said the hospital raised the issue only "in an exploratory fashion" and talk of moving was "premature".
"While we did not raise any objections, we haven't given any kind of approval, including in principle."
The proposal to relocate comes with predictions that the number of babies born at Holles Street will exceed 8,000 this year for the first time in over 20 years.
"The hospital was built in 1894 when we were dealing with a very small number of people," Dr Keane told The Irish Times.
"Since 1994 we have had a continual year on year increase in deliveries. "There were 6,400 in 1994 and we expect 8,100 this year and the increase is expected to continue until 2005. The infrastructure of this current hospital cannot take that."
Dr Keane said that while the move to St Vincent's, where extensive new building is currently under way, was not finalised, if everything went according to plan, the new hospital could expect to open in 2007 or 2008.
"We have been given, not a green light but more than an amber light, to proceed with discussions," said Dr Keane.
"We have met with architects from St Vincent's and had preliminary discussions as to possible locations on the site."
The move, revealed in the current edition of the Irish Medical Times, was one of 11 options considered by the hospital as solutions to its space shortage.
"It came out far ahead of all the other options. It would allow us increase our capacity by 50 per cent and it has all obvious benefits of links to a general hospital.
"It would also allow us address our parking problems.
"We have over 600 staff and only 100 car parking spaces and that's one of the problems we have in attracting people to work for us. We don't have visitor parking space either.
"We considered expanding the current building but to do any major work means turning it into a building site and reducing the number of deliveries. The Coombe (Women's Hospital) and the Rotunda would not be able to take the overflow."
Temporary extra space will have to be provided, however, and the hospital is planning to convert a number of houses it owns on adjacent Mount Street.