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THE NATIONAL CHILDREN’S Hospital will be built on a site in and around St James’s Hospital in Dublin the government has confirmed.
The hospital will be built on a 6.3 hectare site on the campus of the south inner city hospital and will be finished by the end of 2017 or early 2018, the Health Minister James Reilly confirmed today.
The announcement followed a decision by the Cabinet which only considered the issue of a National Paediatric Hospital.
A total of €400 million of government money will be made available for the construction of the hospital. The balance will be made up of Lotto funding, with this figure determined by Cabinet at a later point.
Reilly would not be drawn on the exact amount the hospital will cost saying that this could only be determined after the tendering process. However estimates put it at around €500 million.
Reilly said that the hospital, which will form the largest capital expenditure project of this government’s tenure, will advance the “economic and social development of Dublin city”.
“In the end it is about putting the children first,” Reilly said. “In these very difficult times the new children’s hospital can become a beacon for all of us.”
The announcement was made today at a press conference where Reilly, Children’s Minister Frances Fitzgerald and junior health minister Alex White were in attendance.
Also in attendance was the author of a report into potential sites, Dr Frank Dolphin, who spearheaded a review of sites in the wake of An Bord Pleanála refusing planning permission for the site originally earmarked for the Mater Hospital earlier this year.
Reilly said that €39 million had been spent on the Mater site but said he was advised that €13 million of this can be “reused in the St James’s location” meaning that €26 million would be lost.
He said that “given that the significant risk that remains about planning at Mater site” the government was happy to proceed with the site at St James’s.
Responding to the announcement today, the Fianna Fáil health spokesperson, Bill Kelleher, called on the government to expedite the process of design, planning and development of the hospital.
He said: “While I welcome today’s decision it is important now that the Government brings about clarity in relation to the funding that will be needed for the new site and the timeline by which the hospital will be delivered.
“Children have waited long enough for a world-class healthcare facility and it should be delivered a matter of the utmost priority for Government.”
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I don’t care where it’s built, once there is easy access for everyone and the children get the services needed when finished. I am sick of hearing about, so many millions spent on an EU presidency and no health services for kids!
Hey Coco. You looked like a real clown there, didn’t ya? Nice attempting at reversing out. Bit obvious, though….
play a different tune vincent, why not try and contribute to a discussion for once?
Jesus Vincent ok disagree with the guy, no need to get so nasty
Hi Stacy. He knows how to give it too. Besides. I absolutely guarantee you he’s sitting there in front of his PC with a green wig on, comedy size 20 shoes, wearing a flower on his lapel that squirts water…
Stacey, not Stacy ;-)
I was hoping to see it built on the outskirts of Dublin so that it would be easily accessible to the whole of the country. I would have much preferred a more centralised part of Ireland for the hospital Dublin already has Crumlin!!!
I think you’ll find Laura that the idea of new National Children’s Hospital is to consolidate all the children’s hospitals to one location.
Children’s University Hospital, Temple Street, Dublin
Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin, Dublin
Tallaght Children’s Hospital, Tallaght
All of which are in Dublin Reg
Well Dublin is the capital Laura with more than a quarter of the population of the country living within 50km of the city center. Where did you expect them to put it exactly? Do you also expect all the staff from the existing hospitals to move elsewhere in the country?
@laura the idea is to amalgamate all the children’s hospitals into one super centre, and international best practice would dictate collocation with a tertiary adult hospital. Plus the Coombe will b there too. It should be some campus when completed. A location such as one off the M50 would be logistically nice but standards should take precedence..
I expect to have a hospital that is easily accessible to all the people living in Ireland, ok so a quarter of the population lives in Dublin or surrounding it, but the other three quarters deserve to have a hospital that is easily enough accessible… Athlone would be the most central part of the country
Yes Athlone would be geographically the centre of the country but all the transport infrastructure that was built in the country over the last 15 years means that Dublin is pretty accessible from most places now. You don’t address my point about all the staff, many who are specialists in paediatric medicine having to move to Athlone though.
Reg I would be happier having 2 smaller ‘superhospitals’ for kids one in perhaps cork and the other in dublin. Anyway a more suitable position would have been somewhere along the m50 perhap 20 or 30 kms outside of Dublin city to make it more accessible to everybody
Having another children’s hospital in Cork would be a “nice to have” alright. Given the state of the country’s finances though I wouldn’t hold my breath. Unfortunately when we had some money Bertie was more interested in building a vanity sports stadium as a legacy to himself.
Laura, the hospital must be located on the grounds of teaching and maternity hospitals, therefore – Dublin. Two hospitals would be nice, but there will be difficulty filling positions in the one hospital, never mind 2.
Athlone is a perfect location – if you live in Galway or Dublin – otherwise you have to take roads that are not hospital ready – and make them hospital. Given all this James hospital really was the only option available – the rest was a waste of time.
Laura, it would be easy to get to athlone from Galway but difficult from Wexford. Dublin has the population base and is central.
“2 smaller super hospitals” this in itself is contradictory. I live in Donegal, as the crow flies Dublin is further away than Athlone, but it’s a hell of a lot easier to get to. A lot of the medical and surgical experts work between the main Dublin hospitals and Crumlin/Temple St. eg cardiothoracic,neuro,opthalmic surgeons, and intensive care specialists. So moving away from where the experts are is not a great idea..
Oh for God’s sake. Suppose it’s better than the Mater, but not by much.
I love the ’80s ward picture.
i def agree that it’s the best location. a lot of people travel by train and James is so accessible to both train stations. the luas stops in the grounds. its only a ten minute drive from m50 and you could also park at park and ride at red cow and get luas in. at last a good decision by government
It’s far from 10 minutes during heavy traffic and hopping from train to luas is not realistic if you have your sick or injured child with you. City is a disasterous location, it’s a nightmare when you need to get to a hospital.
Marie the last thing the Rialto area needs is another couple of thousand vehicles a day coming into the area, factor in the extra hospital staff, caterers, cleaners, maintenence, deliveries, & that’s before patients & visitors. Your not going to travel from far away with a sick child to wait at a luas stop in the cold to park n ride to a hospital that should have been on outskirts of Dublin
Public transport is ok for staff & some visitors but the increase in traffic will have a kock on effect all over the southside. There are a lot of bottle necks where traffic has to come down to one lane, imagine an ambulance trying to get past them. A greenfield site where all the hospitals that are needed could be built to the best standards and are right next door to each other is surely the best option. It might take ten years to complete but we would have the best.
Most people will avoid bringing a sick child on public transport like the Luas or bus if they can. I have to bring my daughter to Crumlin regularly and as she’s having chemo has to avoid crowded enclosed spaces like these, and last week even with the schools off it still took 30-45 mins to get to Newlands cross in the late afternoon from Crumlin. St James will take longer still. just outside M50 would have been a more suitable location. Still close to Dublin and more accessible to the rest of the country.
m50 – james 10 min?? maybe at 4 in the morning. The reality is that this is the wrong location for the thousands of families that are using the facility and don’t live in the dublin area. Try driving from Donegal with a sick child to get to an appointment for 930am at James. Add in your suggestion that we park at red cow and get the luas…. give us a break, wheelchair, bags, meds.. donst work. never mind the additional costs and disruptions that building in a city centre location is costing plus delays and they have already made a world class mistake in the choosing of the wrong site. We are using the existing services for years, countless trips to crumlin and believe me that we have rarely met a parent that agrees that James is the right site. It couldn’t be anymore wrong for the future generations of Irelands sick children…
‘Children have waited long enough for a world class healthcare facility’ says Kelleher. The sheer audacity and brazenness of FF is beyond words. Ye were in govt for 14 of the last 15 yrs Billy !!! I’d say around 40% rather than a quarter of the population live within 50km of Dublin city centre.A site on the periphery of Dublin would have been ideal.
A lousy decision by a lousy government via a totally discredited minister for health.
Fianna fail in cheap suits aided and abetted by a sold out labour party.
Why is it a lousy decision, then?
Another lousy, lazy, I’ll conceived anti-Government crap comment by you, you mean….
ill conceived
Werejammin
Take something for that upset stomach . Your infecting everyone around you!
End of 2017, early of 2018 translation 2221/2.
Have to disagree with this site, as a dub it suits me grand but it’s terrible for D rest of population. A site with easier access wud hav made more sense and included d maternity hospital. No one has mentioned d cost and hassle of d materials and construction traffic that will hav to access the site via gridlocked roads
Where is more accessible to the majority of this country than Dublin?
Paul…. just outside the M50. This would still be convenient for Dublin. Ask anyone travelling into Dublin from around the country with sick kids. Its the slowest part of the journey.
Blanchardstown – where there is acres of land available in the grounds of the Hospital already there
@Aaron spot on. There’s space within the hospital grounds to build the required ancillary departments. There’s space to build dedicated exits from both the M50 & N3. There’s space for a helipad to be built for serious injury victims to be flown in. There are rail links that are nearby – Castleknock, Clonsilla & M3 Parkway that could be designated ‘Park& Ride’ for transport to the hospital. Typical lack of foresight in this country, saving money in the short term, but yet diminishing future service for the future.
James Connolly is just off the M50 at the Blanchardstown exit, on the M3, less than a minutes drive from the M50 in fact. There are several bus routes and an Irish rail stop not far either. Not to mention the Travel lodge less than 5 minutes away. How this site wasn’t snapped up is beyond me, or even the Phoenix Park racecourse. Having had to drive to Temple St with an injured child, I can asdure you, it’s no picnic being stuck in traffic listening to your child scream. I know there are ambulances but when it’s not life threatening, it’s not really right to stretch that service even more than it is. James Hospital is far from 10 minutes from the M50 during morning, lunch or rush hour traffic.
Andrea, I cant understand why you are getting red thumbs for that comment. You are completely correct.
Can anyone provide a location within the grounds of St James Hospital for the proposed site? I know that our car parking area is a potential site for the building.
There’s a plan on this older story: http://www.thejournal.ie/plans-for-nine-storey-childrens-hospital-on-st-jamess-site-revealed-463483-May2012/
How much is all this costing, will the services be there when it’s built and why not a central location?
How much more central do you want than James’ ?
How much more central can one get than St James’ Hospital?!
central dublin is the worst place for it, central ireland maybe, or at least near the m50
It’s 5, 10 mins max away from the m50
Its 10 minutes from the M50 and on the Luas line which connects James’ to Heuston, Connolly, Bus Áras within 10 minutes. And it’s going to cost roughly the same no matter where in the country they put it. I think its a pretty good choice of location
hahahaha 10 minutes from the m50, not at 5 in the evening its not
If it needs to be 10 minutes from the m50, call an ambulance.
Center of what? Would you like it in the center of O’Connell street?!
Would that be central enough for you?!
Is this children’s hospital only for children from Dublin? I think with Stephen meant more a central location in the middle of the country.
€26m just like that.
Would have kept a few wards open elsewhere.
Was just about to ask can anyone explain where the €26m went? On planning for the Mater site?
Architects fees, engineering fees, urban planers fees, m&e fees, staff inside the mater (see below), government reports, lawyers fees, some construction work, PR events, public consultation events
Consultants, doctors, nurses, managers and more managers who worked on the project over the last 15 years
Could someone explain to me what is wrong with placing it at Tallaght hospital. Its just off the m50, luas goes by it and good amount of land around it for expansion. Also as far as L’m aware it was designed to be increased upwards if required. I am open to correction. Saying that St James is a better choice than the Maher.
it doesn’t have the specialist facilities james, beaumount or the matter have in reality only these three were ever in the running
thanks baz. man i get thumbed down for asking a question. tough crowd
It’s disgusting to say that 30 people were queuing in temple st yesterday morning, 8 children that have their blood taken exactly and 9.30 to measure antirejection levels only 2 phlebitomists available at least 4 of the children had to be woken at 5.00 am or earlier in order to travel to temple st for this service . Can I say we are happy about location in Dublin no I can’t. M50 location is the only fair and free option
Any red thumbs ever had to frequent one of the children’s hospitals in Dublin ?
No matter were it is , just get it built quicker or will this go on and on ,,, did they not look for it here a few years ago and got turned down for planning ,it’s not a bad place for it plenty of park and ride with the Luas for ppl conning for other county’s
They can waste €26 million on the Mater site, yet I might end up in court for not paying the Household Charge.
F&@k your household charge
Im amazed that there are 6.3 hectare available at the rialto corner of James ‘ I would love to see an aerial photo of this ..anyone got any links to aerial photo s
Google has
People seem to forget the sky rocking cost of petrol. By the time the hospital is built and operational, how many people will have given up on cars for public transport? St James is a great location, hospital ALREADY there which makes huge sense. Heuston station going to all major population centres south of Dublin, and the Luas outside the door. Bus Eireann at Bus Aras, straight on the Luas. When petrol hits 2 and 3 euro a litre, what good is a huge hospital on the M50 – with no supplementary facilities nearby?
And aside from people on the M6 and people in Athlone, getting to a National Children’s Hospital in the midlands would be a disaster.
When it’s finished will they rename it St James’s Reilly Hospital ?
26 million down the toilet and very few people annoyed about it.
All the sites had their good points & bad points. I’d have been happy with any one of them initially but since such a huge sum has been spent on Mater so far it would have been smarter to proceed with it. This is where the petty narrow minded party politics comes into it. FG/Labour were happy to see the 26 million wasted as they were worried about perceptions of Bertie’s fingerprints being on Mater site. A lot of money wasted just to make a cheap party political point.
Remember this when they’re cutting home help hours next month. My mother certainly will.
Was there any announcement as to what James Reillys cut out of the 500m will be? Or which of his friends will win the “open” tendering process?
I work in James and the traffic is so bad getting there and now they are taking another car park in a hospital that is impossible for even the staff to get parking in…
Just get on with it, cut out the long planning process that’s going to happen.
St. James’s Hospital has good links via the Luas to both Dublin’s two main train stations and it main bus terminal and while its not directly on the M50 its is accessible from it in a reasonable time frame. Not every case going to the hospital will be an emergency case and so for normal day-to-day appointments it will give people a possible alternative to having to drive.
Best medical practice says that a Children’s Hospital should be co-located with a major adult hospital and given that most of our major hospitals are in central locations, James’s was probably the best option. All I can say is lets get on with building it now. If only there was some way of shortening the planning process with this it could be built earlier.
Best medical practise says that this hospital should be built beside a maternity hospital Jim. Children are not little adults. Their illnesses are very different and staff are very specialised. You really should talk to the people in Crumlin who know what they are talking about.
The staff are marvelous in Crumlin but parts of the hospital is so out dated that i’d welcome the hospital anywhere and now that we are attending clinics in St James its not as difficult to get to as Crumlin, while the staff were marvelous, the hospital facilities were so out dated in 2006, that i just want to see a hospital built, particularly for teenagers who fall between the adult treatment centers and the children’s ones for cancer……also if i remember correctly the Mater site wasn’t going to have a parents facility for them to stay……….which is vital for parents with critically ill children regardless where they have to travel from……when the Mater site was 1st considered
Dublin City Manager oversaw all this planning shambles – does it mea he looses his job. It has cost €35million and lost years of care for kids. Will anybody in the planning department get fired?
I bet they get increases in salaries no matter how incompetent. Why are the unions not looking for the people responsible for this cock-up.
It really is a pity the government didnt take into account what the paeds specialists in Crumlin Hospital suggested. They wanted the hospital built beside the Coombe. St James’s merely wanted it at their site because it reflected well on them and had nothing to do with what was best for the care of sick children. This is a disgrace. There is NO space in SJH for this hospital. The site at the Coombe is 20 acres with ample bus routes, the luas route but more importantly, plenty of space for parking and for expansion potential. I bet down the line we find out that bribes were taken for this. What a sad day for children and their care. No one listened to those who actually do the caring and who know what these children need. This country really is a sham.
When they bring in the bulldozers at James, hopefully they will also attend to the adjacent site to the Coombe hospital that was touted as the new hospital location but is now earmarked for “possible future development”. By flattening the Player Wills factory and the flats at Teresas Gardens, it can at least be used, at the very minimum, as a parking facility while the powers that be decide what to do with this currently derelict city council land.
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