Nama’s 11 hospital sites

Finally, a possible use for Irish Glass Bottle location as Reilly promises quick decision to give children care that they deserve

THE controversial Irish Glass Bottle site is understood to be one of 11 put forward by Nama as possible locations for the proposed new national children’s hospital.

Health Minister James Reilly told the Dáil yesterday that Nama had identified 11 potential sites for the hospital.

The Irish Daily Mail understands one of those is the Irish Glass Bottle site in Dublin’s Ringsend.

The site was bought by a consortium for €412million at the height of the boom.

The group – comprised of developer Bernard Mcnamara, financier Derek Quinlan and the Dublin Docklands Development Authority – paid the massive sum for the 24-acre former toxic-waste dump in 2006.

Land known as the ‘Elm Park site’ close to St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin’s southside is understood to also be on the Nama list, as is a site at North Wall Quay near the former Anglo Irish Bank headquarters.

Nama said last night that it had loans linked to a number of highprofile sites around Dublin.

If the Government wanted to use one of the 11 sites for the hospital project it would have to negotiate with the owner and pay the market price for the site.

A review group headed by former Health Service Executive board chairman Frank Dolphin is due to meet for the first time this week to consider options for the children’s hospital project.

This follows the shock decision by An Bord Pleanála to reject plans for the €650million hospital on a site at the Mater hospital, Dublin.

The nine-member review group has been given 56 days following its first meeting to recommend site op- tions for the beleaguered project. It will have to list the pros and cons of sites considered.

Dr Reilly said it was not his intention that the review group would ‘in-

‘Months quickly turn into years’

spect every site because if it did months would turn into years very quickly’. He said some of the sites pin-pointed by Nama ‘might be of use to hospitals of a different nature and provide opportunities on another occasion.’

The new paediatric hospital will see the existing three children’s hospitals at Crumlin, Tallaght and Temple Street merged on one site.

The minister said ‘the issue of colocation’ with an adult hospital was major requirement for the planned national paediatric hospital.

Dr Reilly said the ‘refusal on the Mater site’ requires time for reflection. ‘I want this expedited.

‘I have made it very clear that all options are on the table and that the advice the Government and I want is on the pros and cons of each option, and for us to make a decision quickly to get on with this and provide what is right for our children.’

Fianna Fáil health spokesman Billy Kelleher TD said an expert group indicated last year that the Mater site was the most suitable for colocation between an adult teaching hospital and a paediatric hospital.

Dr Reilly prompted harsh criticism last month when he suggested plans for the new hospital might be downsized to make it suitable for the Mater site.

Mr Kelleher said: ‘I presume the idea of co-locating an adult teaching hospital with a paediatric hospital is weighted or encouraged as the most suitable in terms of best care and health service delivery for children and mothers given the complications that can arise.’

The Coombe maternity hospital has proposed a 20- acre site in Dublin’s south inner city for the new hospital. Farmers Fergus and Frank Connon have offered to donate land near the M50 in north Co. Dublin to build the hospital on.

The planned facility at the Mater had been due to admit its first patients by the end of 2016.

About €35million has already been spent on planning the hospital on what had become a controversial city centre site.