THE BOARD OF the Children’s Hospital of Ireland says it is committed to working with the review group announced by the Minister for Health following An Bord Pleanála’s refusal to grant planning permission for the construction of a new national children’s hospital.

The application concerned the construction of the new hospital on the site of the Mater Hospital in Dublin.

Delivering its decision last Thursday, the planning board said that the proposed building would be a “dominant, visually incongruous structure” which would have “a profound negative impact on the appearance and visual amenity of the city skyline”.

In a statement, the Children’s Hospital board said that it met today to discussion the planning decision.

“The function of the board is to implement government policy in respect of the establishment of a new Children’s Hospital as a co-located facility,” the hospital board said, adding that it is committed to working “closely with and assisting” the review group established by Minister James Reilly and led by Dr Frank Dolphin.

The review group is being set up to look into the planning decision and to make recommendations on the next steps the project should take. Announcing the new body last week, Reilly said that the group would operate “with great urgency and immediacy”. The minister said that An Bord Pleanála’s decision was a delay, but not an end to the hospital project.

Read: Planning board refuses permission for new National Children’s Hospital >

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