Fresh calls to construct new children’s hospital in Dublin 15

THE chief executive of a national children’s charity says Blanchardstown should to be reconsidered as the best location for the National Children’s Hospital.

Jonathan Irwin of the Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation is calling on Minister for Health Leo Varadkar and Tánaiste Joan Burton to reopen the file and considering the benefit locally in terms of jobs, investment and spend.

A site at St James’s has already been chosen for the new hospital but Irwin says many families involved with the Jack & Jill Foundation believe the location is too small with little room for expansion.

“None of our board members has a problem with the design of the National Children’s Hospital,

? he said.

“Where we have the problem is with the flawed location. It’s inaccessible, a parking nightmare, a cramped inner city location with security problems and, most worryingly, the co-location of a maternity hospital in St James’s has disappeared from the agenda and there simply isn’t the room.

?

Department of Health officials are currently considering relocating the Rotunda Hospital to Blanchardstown and Irwin feels this strengthens the case to site the National Children’s Hospital there as well.

“We don’t expect that this Government will build a maternity hospital at St James’s even if there was the space on the campus to do so, which there is not,

? he continued.

“Nobody wants to spend more wasted millions on the second wrong location, when Blanchardstown is the obvious solution and would give us that all important link to the Rotunda.

“I am urging local residents in Blanchardstown to remind Ministers Burton and Varadkar of their obligation to build the best hospital for all concerned, and with the solution right on their door step, what’s stopping them reopening the file on Blanchardstown?

?

“Now is the time for courage and common sense.

?

Irwin announced earlier this year that he will be a Renua Ireland candidate in the next general election.