Campus hospital: There is a possibility that the hospital chosen as the national tertiary referral centre for children with certain conditions could be located at the Mater Hospital campus, the head of the Health Service Executive (HSE) has said.
Prof Brendan Drumm said the centre could be based at Temple Street Hospital which is to move to the Mater hospital site.
His comments follow widespread speculation that the national centre was most likely to be based at Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children when it is rebuilt.
Prof Drumm said "people have different opinions" on where the national centre should be located. "The rail network will be an important consideration in any decision because up to 40 per cent of children attending the centre will come from outside Dublin," he said.
The HSE is at present seeking a third party to review paediatric services and where the most specialised services for children should be located, rather than having them spread across a number of sites.
Prof Drumm said while he could not "make a determination in advance of a detailed planning process", the tertiary referral centre "should ideally be in the city centre or close to the Mater site".
"The implications will be more significant for people on the Crumlin site than for those in the Mater or Temple Street hospitals," he added.
He made his remarks during a wide- ranging presentation to the joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children.
"There is the possibility that the national tertiary unit would be on the Mater site.
"The contending arguments involved have not yet been fully thought through.
"It must be determined whether a single national tertiary centre is the correct option, although I suspect that most people agree that it is appropriate with regard to our workload and the needs of the country in general," he said.
On the review of paediatric services about to take place, he said the HSE was concerned with establishing what was in the best interests of children because the developments for Temple Street and Crumlin will cost €700 million to €800 million between them.
He added that the provision of tertiary care paediatric services was an issued that affected not only Dublin but the entire country, "from Falcarragh to Cahirciveen, although I suspect that point is sometimes lost".
Last month the HSE said the review, which will determine the reconfiguration of services provided by children's hospitals, would be drawn up by the end of January,
However, a HSE spokesman has now said the team doing the review had not yet been selected.
"We have established a procurement team to engage an outside consultant to carry out this review and they are currently working on the criteria for this work and are drawing up a shortlist of companies they might invite to tender," the spokesman said.