Medical politics cannot and will not get in the way of the decision to locate the new national children's hospital at Dublin's Mater hospital, Minister for Health Mary Harney said yesterday.
As the row over the location of the new hospital continues, with Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin and Tallaght hospital objecting to the site chosen, Ms Harney insisted that a "silent majority" wanted the Government to get on with building the hospital.
The three existing children's hospitals in Dublin - Crumlin, Tallaght and Temple Street - will be merged into the new hospital on the Mater site. To date, only Temple Street is in favour of the move.
When asked about the issue yesterday, Ms Harney said: "There is a silent majority I think that wants to see the Government proceed with the building of the hospital.
"I've been hearing about the northside and the southside of Dublin. This is not about Dublin. This is a hospital for all the children all over the country and there are many people who have been in touch with me, including paediatricians, who want to make sure that the current controversy doesn't stop the right thing happening," she said.
"I heard Prof [ Brendan] Drumm say yesterday that for 10 years we haven't been able to appoint a paediatric surgeon because the two hospitals couldn't agree about how that surgeon's sessions would be divided. I think that is just incredible.
"And medical politics cannot get in the way of the right thing happening here and won't."
The faculty of paediatrics at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland said yesterday that the new hospital should be located, as planned, on the site of an adult hospital and that the project should proceed without further delay.
In a statement, the college said that as far back as 1993 it recommended a single tertiary-care hospital for children in Ireland located on an adult hospital site.
"The board of the faculty of paediatrics discussed this issue again at their meeting on January 19th, 2007. There was unanimous support for a single-site tertiary paediatric unit in Dublin and for the need to immediately involve the faculty in the planning and development of this much-needed facility," it said.
"The board would also like to draw attention to the need to consider the development of general and specialised paediatric services throughout the country in relation to the highly-specialised services to be provided in the Dublin centre and to involve stakeholders in discussions relating to these services.
"In the context of the urgent requirement for the provision of high-quality paediatric facilities in Ireland, the board wishes to emphasise the importance of this project proceeding without further delay," it added.
Tallaght hospital is still awaiting a date for a meeting with Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Ms Harney to discuss its proposal that the new children's hospital be located across two sites with a single governance structure.