Bord Pleanála reported to have refused permission for National Children's Hospital

[Brendan Burgess]

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0223/hospital.html

It has been reported that An Bord Pleanála has turned down planning permission for the proposed National Children's Hospital in Dublin.
The plan was rejected by a majority of three to one of the Board.
The decision was made because the building was too high, did not fit in with the Dublin skyline and the Mater site is already considered to be heavily developed.
Construction of the €650m hospital was due to be completed by 2016 and it would have been the biggest building project in the State.
A formal announcement is expected from An Bord Pleanála.

 

[thedaras]

I'm not surprised at all about this..I always felt that a decision would be made, by hook or by crook to stop this development going ahead at that site.

 

[Purple]

Good; it was a bad idea to put it there from the start.

 

[Sunny]

Good; it was a bad idea to put it there from the start.

Not acccording to numerous expert reports commissioned by both the previous and present Governments. I don't care where it is built but it is a disgrace that we might have to now go back to the drawing board on this whole project.

 

[DB74]

I wonder how much it has cost to-date?

 

[Ceist Beag]

Not acccording to numerous expert reports commissioned by both the previous and present Governments. I don't care where it is built but it is a disgrace that we might have to now go back to the drawing board on this whole project.

Big +1 Sunny.

 

[TarfHead]

Not acccording to numerous expert reports commissioned by both the previous and present Governments. I don't care where it is built but it is a disgrace that we might have to now go back to the drawing board on this whole project.

Maybe they should have commissioned an 'expert' on getting the An Bord Pleanála application fit for purpose ?

 

[micmclo]

No need for an expert, Bertie wanted this for his constituency
It's been going on so long when this first started Bertie was still our leader

 

[terrysgirl33]

Not acccording to numerous expert reports commissioned by both the previous and present Governments. I don't care where it is built but it is a disgrace that we might have to now go back to the drawing board on this whole project.

AFIAK, some of the reports at least were based on that site, as in they couldn't consider another site as that was outside the scope of the report.

 

[thedaras]

Maybe they should have commissioned an 'expert' on getting the An Bord Pleanála application fit for purpose ?

Perhaps they did commission an expert to ensure it "wasn't" fit for purpose (Im such a cynic!)

 

[T McGibney]

Not acccording to numerous expert reports commissioned by both the previous and present Governments. I don't care where it is built but it is a disgrace that we might have to now go back to the drawing board on this whole project.

In Ireland, an expert report commissioned by a government is a contradiction in terms. So-called experts write what the politicians and civil servants want them to write. Our country seems to be too small for properly effective governance.

 

[Purple]

Not acccording to numerous expert reports commissioned by both the previous and present Governments. I don't care where it is built but it is a disgrace that we might have to now go back to the drawing board on this whole project.

It's the "National" childrens hospital, not the "Dublin" childrens hospital. It should have been built near the M50 so that people from the rest of the country could get there without having to drive through Dublin traffic. Tallaght was, and still is, the obvious site.

 

[Ceist Beag]

That may well be the case Purple the the point is we're going around in circles on this for years with millions of taxpayers money being wasted (as with DB74 I'd be interested in just how much it has cost to date) and we're still no closer to the hospital being built. It is a disgrace that we're many, many years on from when this whole process started and don't even know yet where it will be built, never mind when. Shame on this and previous Governments.

 

[Sunny]

It's the "National" childrens hospital, not the "Dublin" childrens hospital. It should have been built near the M50 so that people from the rest of the country could get there without having to drive through Dublin traffic. Tallaght was, and still is, the obvious site.

Using that logic, put it in Galway, Cork, Limerick etc etc. There was more to this decision than simply issues with access. Amazing how quickly we all forget how mis-managed Tallaght hospital has shown itself to be in recent years but still have no problem giving it a childrens hospital to look after because it will be easier to park a car there. Lets not worry about the medical side of things.

I don't care where the bloody thing is built but all the vested interest groups should just shut up and allow the thing to be built. We have been talking about this for 10 years. If Tallaght is the best place, then build it there. Of course, then we will probably have St James saying they want it now.

 

[Firefly]

That may well be the case Purple the the point is we're going around in circles on this for years with millions of taxpayers money being wasted (as with DB74 I'd be interested in just how much it has cost to date) and we're still no closer to the hospital being built. It is a disgrace that we're many, many years on from when this whole process started and don't even know yet where it will be built, never mind when. Shame on this and previous Governments.

According to the article the build cost was 650m, so you could probably assume that the final cost would have been 1bn. As bad as the delays and money spent has been...I'd rather that the project was stopped now rather than spend 650m+ for something which is not right.

 

[csirl]

The centre of population on this island i.e. where you have equal people to the north/south and east/west is somewhere around Santry. Plenty of land out there to built it and its close to M50.

 

[Purple]

Using that logic, put it in Galway, Cork, Limerick etc etc. There was more to this decision than simply issues with access. Amazing how quickly we all forget how mis-managed Tallaght hospital has shown itself to be in recent years but still have no problem giving it a childrens hospital to look after because it will be easier to park a car there. Lets not worry about the medical side of things.

I don't care where the bloody thing is built but all the vested interest groups should just shut up and allow the thing to be built. We have been talking about this for 10 years. If Tallaght is the best place, then build it there. Of course, then we will probably have St James saying they want it now.

Dublin is the easliest place to get to from anywhere in the country.
The Crumlin site was never going to be big enough. Bertie is still casting his shadow of self-interest across the country.
Oh, and just because it's built in Tallaght doesn't mean the existing management should run it.
St. James is currently the biggest hospital in the country. It has no childrens facility so would hardly want one.

 

[spwizard]

I don't understand why people are still obsessed with Bertie. He was not part of the panel of 5 independent, international experts who unanimously decided that this is the best site.
Sheepishly bleating regurgitated nonsense, that sounds like it came straight from daytime radio, about Bertie reeks of paranoia and shows a lack of understanding of the real facts of this matter.

 

[Purple]

I don't understand why people are still obsessed with Bertie. He was not part of the panel of 5 independent, international experts who unanimously decided that this is the best site.
Sheepishly bleating regurgitated nonsense, that sounds like it came straight from daytime radio, about Bertie reeks of paranoia and shows a lack of understanding of the real facts of this matter.

I don’t understand how people can be so naive as to think that government funded projects that are politically highly sensitive aren’t heavily influenced by politicians.
Bertie’s fingerprints are all over this.

 

[Sunny]

I don’t understand how people can be so naive as to think that government funded projects that are politically highly sensitive aren’t heavily influenced by politicians.
Bertie’s fingerprints are all over this.

Maybe that was the case originally but the new Government could have changed it anytime they wanted. First thing James O'Reilly did was commission a report into the decision and the report still came back and said the Mater. And yet we are still debating it......Why don't we keep doing reports until we get the answer that certain people want?