The chief executive of the Health Service Executive has said Dublin's children's hospitals did not always act in the best interests of patients in the past.
Prof Brendan Drumm also signalled yesterday that the new national children's hospital would be developed, as planned, on the Mater hospital site, despite objections by other hospitals.
In an interview on RTÉ Radio's This Week programme, he said: "The history of children's hospitals in Dublin is not, I am afraid, conducive to saying that they always supported the needs of children." He said paediatric surgery in Dublin had been divided between hospitals for 10 years, against all international opinion.
According to Prof Drumm, international consultants had been commissioned to produce a framework for the new children's hospital on the Mater site. He said this plan would be outlined within the next 10-11 weeks.
Asked about concerns regarding the composition of the taskforce which recommended the Mater site and particularly the involvement of paediatricians, he said two public health doctors with expertise in population health were in the group.
