Mater group submits revised plan

Supporters of developing the national children’s hospital on the Mater site in Dublin said today it can be built there more quickly and at less cost than at any other location.

The backers of the Mater site today that a revised plan they have put forward would have a wider footprint and a lower height than the original proposal, which was rejected by An Bord Pleanála several weeks ago.

Under the new blueprint, the top six storeys in the original design for the hospital have been removed.

Additional space will be provided by using the old Mater hospital building, which dates back to the 1850s.

Speaking this afternoon, the Master of the Rotunda hospital Dr Sam Coulter-Smith said the national children's hospital could be delivered on the Mater site three years faster than anywhere else.

Fifteen locations have now been mooted for the new national children's hospital.

Some centre on existing hospitals, in keeping with the Government's principle that the new paediatric centre should be co-located with an adult teaching hospital. These include the Mater, St James's, Tallaght and Connolly hospitals. The Coombe Hospital has suggested a plan for the new children's hospital at a site off the South Circular Road.

Developer Flynn and O'Flaherty has offered an eight-acre site on Navan Road, free of charge.

Solicitor and developer Noel Smyth has long had an offer on the table of a site off the Naas Road, at Newlands Cross.

Minister for Health James Reilly told the Dáil that Nama had identified 11 possible sites.