Children's hospital controversy

Madam, - It is disingenuous of Brian Gilroy of the HSE to tell Frank McDonald ( The Irish Times , January 17th) that no decision…

Madam, - It is disingenuous of Brian Gilroy of the HSE to tell Frank McDonald ( The Irish Times, January 17th) that no decision has been made about the re-location of a maternity hospital at the Mater site. This is certainly true as far as it goes, but it does not go very far.

As long ago as April 26th last year the board of the Rotunda agreed to make a submission for the tri-location on the Mater site of the Mater, the new paediatric Hospital, and the Rotunda Hospital, and this decision was promptly relayed to the HSE. I am a governor of the Rotunda, but I do not support this decision - it seems to me to be foolish to locate the new paediatric hospital (incorporating three current children's hospitals) plus the Rotunda Hospital on a site of six acres at the Mater.

Much more sensible is the proposal of Prof Dermot Hourihane (The Irish Times, January 23rd) that a new paediatric hospital should be built in west Dublin and that a new maternity hospital should occupy the same location and that this maternity hospital should replace the Coombe Hospital which is in need of re-building. - Yours, etc,

ROBERT MacCARTHY,
Dean of St Patrick's,
Upper Kevin Street,
Dublin 8.