Work has begun on the planning and design of the new £175 million Mater/Temple Street hospital in Dublin, it was confirmed yesterday as Government funding for the project was formally announced.
The combined hospital will be between the existing Mater Misericordiae Hospital and the Mater Private Hospital. It is scheduled to be completed by 2008.
The 170-bed hospital will have 750 medical and nursing staff and a total workforce of more than 1,000.
The first phase of the development will encompass facilities for a national heart/lung transplant programme.
It will also include an accident and emergency department, a surgical department/intensive care unit, central sterile supplies department and outpatient/day services department.
The second phase will incorporate all the children's hospital facilities, as well as catering, pharmacy, pathology and central supplies/maintenance workshop.
The hospital is the largest capital health project in the National Development Plan.
The project was officially announced yesterday by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the Minister for Health and Children, Mr Cowen.
It is the result of co-operation between the Religious Sisters of Charity, who were trustees of the Temple Street Children's Hospital, and the Sisters of Mercy, who were trustees of the Mater.
Under the agreement, the Sisters of Mercy will become trustees of the new hospital as part of an exchange which sees the Religious Sisters of Charity take over the trusteeship of St Michael's Hospital, Dun Laoghaire, from the Sisters of Mercy.
Mr Ahern said the project was ground-breaking. "It is a result of the vision, resolve and sheer hard work of the Sisters of Mercy and the Sisters of Charity," he said.