Connolly bids for Children’s Hospital

CONNOLLY Hospital has resubmitted its pitch to have
the new children’s hospital located on its lands in Blanchardstown, Northside
People can exclusively reveal.

The hospital board hope that its bid as a suitable
location for the new site for the national paediatric hospital will be favoured
in light of its improved accessibility, services and the availability of land
for expansion.

The children’s hospital review group will consider
Connolly Hospital’s pitch in its review which is due to be completed within the
next two months.

This is the second time that Connolly Hospital has
submitted a proposal in relation to the development of the national paediatric hospital.

It was ruled out of the initial planning stage when
the Mater Hospital was chosen as the preferred location for the development but
the latest push for the children’s hospital in Connolly is gathering momentum.

Separately, a proposal to situate the national
children’s hospital on the Connolly site will be put to Fingal County Council
next week.

Local councillor David McGuinness (FF) will put
forward his proposal at the April 9 meeting of the council in a bid to secure
cross-party support .

Cllr McGuinness is preparing a pitch for locating the
children’s hospital in Dublin 15 in the event that a new configuration of the
Mater hospital site does not get approval from An Bord Pleanála.

“I believe the Connolly Hospital lands would be the
ideal location for the hospital because it fulfils all the required criteria,

?
he told Northside People.

“It’s a better option than locating it in Tallaght and
I firmly believe that it should be considered by the review body.

?

Cllr McGuinness said that issues which saw the
Connolly site ruled out at the original planning stage have been largely
resolved.

“One of the issues was a lack of accessibility but
that has changed with the improvement of the M50 and the completion of the new
N3 access bridge,

? he explained.

“Connolly’s pitch is also very strong because of its
potential amalgamation of services with Beaumont Hospital and the Royal College
of Surgeons.

“There is also huge scope for the children’s hospital
to expand on the Connolly site by making use of 20 acres in Abbotstown, an idea
which I believe the Minister for Sport has approved in theory.

?

A review group studying the design of the new
children’s hospital and the feasibility of alternative sites was set up after
An Bord Pleanala refused permission for the Mater site on February 23.

In mid March, Minister for Health James Reilly asked
the group, which is to be chaired by former HSE chairman Frank Dolphin, to
report back within two months.