A consortium of businessmen who had previously offered to rebuild Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin, at a greenfield site in Dublin, now say they want to build the hospital which will replace Crumlin and the two other children's hospitals in the capital.
They have proposed a greenfield site at Newlands Cross, close to the M50, and say it would be built on a not-for-profit basis, saving taxpayers around €250 million. The Coombe Women's Hospital could also be relocated to the site, they say.
However, they are concerned their proposal is not being taken seriously by the Health Service Executive (HSE), which last month set up an expert group representative of the HSE, the Office of Public Works and the Department of Health to decide where a new children's hospital for the whole country should be located.
The HSE said yesterday that the proposal had been received and acknowledged.
The proposal was submitted in the name of Alburn Ltd and is led by the solicitor and property developer Noel Smyth.
An expert report published last month recommended that the site chosen for the new children's hospital should be adjacent to an adult hospital, have space for future expansion and be easily accessible by public transport. The HSE adopted the report in full and said it would merge the three existing children's hospitals into one.
Yesterday it said the prime consideration in deciding a site for the new children's hospital should be the proximity of an adult teaching hospital.
"It should be noted their [Alburn's] proposal is not co-located with an adult teaching academic hospital," it said.
"The HSE is very conscious of its responsibilities regarding the financial aspects of this project. The major costs associated with a new children's hospital will centre on running costs and the staffing of the hospital which will far exceed any capital costs involved in the building of the facility," it added.
RTÉ reported that if the Newlands Cross site was not acceptable to the HSE, the consortium was prepared to build the new hospital at another site, again on a not-for-profit basis.
The group deciding on the choice of site is expected to make a recommendation to the board of the HSE next Thursday. Even if the board accepts the recommendation, it will also have to be approved by Minister for Health Mary Harney.
Several other sites have also been proposed for the new children's hospital. These include a site at Grangegorman, the Mater hospital, Beaumont hospital, Blanchardstown hospital, St James's Hospital, St Vincent's Hospital and Tallaght hospital. The group behind the private-sector Beacon Hospital in south Dublin has also suggested a site in Sandyford.
Dr William Casey, a paediatric anaesthetist at Crumlin hospital, suggested it was more important that the new hospital be co-located with a maternity hospital than an adult hospital.