Connolly campaigners to attend Leinster House meeting

CAMPAIGNERS calling for the new Children’s Hospital to be built on the Connolly Hospital campus will be attending a Leinster House Committee Room next week to make their case.

The Connolly for Kids Hospital (C4KH) group have been granted a public meeting with the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health on October 27 who will also hear the views of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board. 

However, one of the biggest supporters of C4KH, the Jack & Jill Foundation, has had a request to attend the meeting turned down. 

The foundation’s CEO, Jonathan Irwin, has reacted furiously to the rejection, writing an open letter which sparked a raft of complaints to members of the Health Committee.

“As I’ve said to the Chairman of the Committee, Dr Michael Harty, holding an enquiry into the location of the National Children’s Hospital without inviting Jack & Jill along is like talking about cancer without the Irish Cancer Society present,” he wrote.

Referring to the letter of rejection, which was posted on his Facebook page, Irwin said: “This is a message that matters to all Jack & Jill families and supporters. It is a flat No, with absolutely no explanation as to why.”

Irwin’s letter lists the members of the Health Committee and asks Jack & Jill supporters to email a letter of complaint, asking why the Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation has been ‘locked out’ of the meeting on October 27.

Despite the meeting, plans are already well underway to locate the new hospital in Dublin 8 at the St James’s campus. However, campaigners are urging the decision to be reversed.

“The location of the National Children’s Hospital is not a done deal and this inquiry by the Health Committee, which includes our good friends Connolly 4 Kids, is both timely and hugely important, as it’s never too late to call a halt to the wrong decision,” added Irwin, who vowed to be at Leinster House on the day of the meeting.

“One way or another I intend to be there on October 27, even if it is in the visitors’ gallery, or I’ll stand outside the gates of Leinster House in protest if I have to.”

During the meeting, C4KH will be able to outline their views in a five-minute opening statement and take part in an open discussion with members of the committee.

The meeting starts at 9am and will be televised live on the Oireachtas TV channel.