A PLANNING APPLICATION for the new National Children’s Hospital will be submitted to An Bord Pleanála later today but a final decision on proceeding with the facility will not come until later this year.

RTÉ reports that the submission follows the recommendation from an independent review group that the hospital should be built on a site near the Mater Hospital in Dublin.

The Minister for Health James Reilly confirmed earlier this month that he was accepting the advice of the independent panel, which he had commissioned in May.

The commission produced a report which compared the costs of building the hospital at a number of sites, and analysed the clinical benefits of each location, before naming the existing Mater site as its preferred location.

The application will include plans for a 392 beds, 13 operating theatres, play areas, and hospital school and gardens.

Submissions on the application can be made to the planning board for seven weeks. If the planning process is not delayed it could be completed by the middle of next year.

Construction of the facility is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2016 but it is dependent on the government’s overall review of capital spending which is due in September.

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